Separate lane for heavy vehicles, interceptor cars for traffic cops on cards to address Navale Bridge accidents
From separate lanes for heavy vehicles to interceptor cars for the traffic police, a meeting chaired by Pune Collector Rajesh Deshmukh has decided to implement several measures to reduce the number of accidents on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway near Navale Bridge.
The meeting was held in the wake of the accident that occurred on April 23 when five persons were killed and 21 others were injured after a private passenger bus on its way to Mumbai from Kolhapur was hit by a truck from behind near the Narhe Ambegaon area.
Superintendent of Police for Pune Rural Ankit Goyal, PMC Additional Commissioner Vikas Dhakane, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Vijaykumar Magar, Project Manager for National Highways Authority of India Sanjay Kadam, Pune RTO Ajit Shinde and representatives of Save Life Foundation were present in the meeting.
Officials said that the April 23 accident likely happened due to the truck driver switching to neutral gear, turning off the ignition and using the brakes to control the speed on the slope. Such methods sometimes lead to temporary failure of brakes, officials said.
Collector Deshmukh said that it was important to take measures to reduce the speed of heavy vehicles. He suggested that the NHAI authorities should conduct a meeting with the truck owners’ unions for counselling.
The meeting was held in the wake of the accident that occurred on April 23 when five persons were killed and 21 others injured after a private passenger bus on its way to Mumbai from Kolhapur was hit by a truck from behind near the Narhe Ambegaon area. (Express Photo)
Among measures that needed to be taken to reduce the accidents, the officials agreed to allot a separate lane for heavy vehicles from Katraj tunnel to Navale Bridge, to set up a traffic police chowki at the spot which will be equipped with a public address system, to further increase the number of rumblers between Swami Narayan Mandir and Dari Bridge and to keep a crane on stand bye to provide urgent help to the police in case of any untoward incident happening.
“We have also decided that two interceptor vehicles – one each for Pune City Traffic Police and Pune Rural Police – will be bought from District Planning Committee funds so that the traffic is regularised in a better way,” said Deshmukh.
Kadam shared that a report on long term measures required to be taken to reduce accidents at this blackspot has been prepared and a meeting between Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Union Minister of Road, Transport and Highways is scheduled to take place soon to discuss the report.
The stretch of road on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway near Navale Bridge has emerged as an accident-prone area in recent years. On April 23, for instance, three accidents were reported from the area within a span of two hours.
