‘No food, water or updates’: Commuters describe harrowing ordeal after Mumbai-Pune expressway accident

Barve found himself just a kilometre from the accident spot, trapped for nearly six hours. “There was not one police van passing from the opposite lane to announce the incident or inform stranded commuters. Everyone was clueless,” he said. Fortunately, he had set up an update on Gemini, which was tracking the developing situation. “I informed people stuck with me in other cars around the stretch.”

What struck Barve most was the complete absence of communication from the authorities. “It is understandable that it’s difficult to handle such crowds. However, authorities should’ve at least informed people about the expected wait time,” he said. “There were senior citizens, women, and children, the most vulnerable, who were stranded for hours without any update.”

Situated near a divider break, Barve managed to return to Lonavala, then travelled via Tamhini Ghat, a detour of 250 km, finally reaching Mumbai at 5 am. “While returning, we saw traffic snarls stretching to around 25 km,” he said. “People usually carry one water bottle for a three-hour drive and expect to refill at food malls. So there was no food, water, or toilet facilities, a quite miserable experience.”

Barve stressed the need for better crisis management. “Authorities must seriously ponder a standard operating procedure, acknowledging that such a huge volume of people get trapped in such a small area. There are no divider breaks, separate bylanes for trucks, and no toilet facilities other than the food mall. How can people endure such situations?”

He suggested the highway authorities should maintain an active information portal or Twitter feed to declare such updates. “People with emergencies or flights must catch, there was absolutely nothing they could do.”
An 11-hour journey

For Madhukar Jambhale, an industrialist from Ranjangaon travelling for a scheduled meeting, the return journey to Pune became an 11-hour nightmare. He boarded a Shivneri bus from Dadar at 5.20 am on Wednesday, expecting to reach Shivajinagar in the usual three hours. Instead, he reached the Khalapur toll plaza only at 11.20 am, six hours into the journey.

“Traffic was very severe as only one lane was operational along the ghat section,” Jambhale said. The Khalapur-Lonavala stretch, which takes 20-25 minutes, took him 3.5 hours. He finally reached Shivajinagar at 4.30 pm.

“Men had the option to at least relieve themselves outdoors, but women faced the most inconvenience because of the accident, as there were no toilets or water facilities on the way,” he said. “Except at the accident spot, there were no police present to regulate traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.”

Jambhale, who has been travelling this route since 1995, said he had never faced such traffic. “The MSRTC should have declared it beforehand while leaving from Mumbai; this could’ve averted unnecessary travel,” he said. “It is high time the government focuses on capacity building and deploys resources to tackle such disasters. Just one tanker leak stalled the entire expressway.”

Chaos and medical emergencies

Parineeti Marathe, Vice-Principal at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, was returning with her family after attending a function in Mumbai. They left Juhu at 9.45 pm on Tuesday, expecting a smooth journey home. Instead, they encountered severe traffic jams post-Khalapur toll plaza and didn’t reach their destination until 2.45 am.

“The traffic stretched around 30 km,” Marathe said. “An ambulance was stuck, e-Shivneri bus and electric vehicles were stranded due to battery runouts, and it was absolute chaos. There was no scope for help in case of a medical emergency, and no police personnel to manage the traffic.”

She was fortunate to find a diversion near Khopoli, allowing her to take the Old Pune-Mumbai Highway. To prevent such incidents in future, she suggested enforcing stricter traffic regulations to ensure heavy vehicles maintain the left lane, and expediting missing link road projects that would offer alternatives to the Lonavala-Khandala ghat.