Maharashtra government boosts vigil on Mumbai-Pune expressway
30 teams of highway police, transport dept deployed on the 95-km stretch.
Damaged vehicles after the accident at Panvel on Sunday. PTI photo
Following a major accident on the Mumbai-Pune expressway on Sunday that killed 17 people and injured 43, the state government has stepped up vigilance by deploying 30 teams of the state highway police and transport department on the 95-km stretch.
Till about 5 pm on Thursday, the teams took action against 126 drivers of vehicles for various offences and even seized 20 vehicles. The 30 teams have been monitoring the expressway, notorious for a high number of accidents, for any cases of lane cutting, over speeding, drunk driving and over loading.
Officials said the teams will continue to monitor the expressway for all these offences and will take strict action such as suspending licences, canceling permits and even registering cases against owners of the vehicles.
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State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote and Minister for Public Works Department (Public Undertakings) Eknath Shinde visited the expressway on Thursday to supervise the 30 teams.
Raote said, “Currently, the amount of penalty that is collected from errant drivers is miniscule and does not act as a deterrent. So it is necessary to take stringent action such as suspension of licences and revoking permits.”
Shinde said the government has also decided to simultaneously speed up the process of setting up an intelligent traffic management system, by covering the entire expressway with surveillance cameras and linking them to a control centre. “We will also start the trauma care centre and air ambulance service at Ozarde at the earliest,” he added.
As per the National Road Safety Council, an advisory body of the government, Maharashtra has recorded an almost 40 per cent increase in road accidents in one year. As per the council, there were 63,805 road accidents in Maharashtra in 2015-16 compared with 44,000 in 2014-15. The number of fatalities has also slightly increased to 13,743 in 2015-16 as compared with 13,212.
Kamal Soi, member of the council, said, “Improper implementation and lack of enforcement of preventive measures have resulted in frequent cases of accidents on roads. A spurt in cases of over-speeding, especially during the night hours, have led to an increase in fatal cases.”
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