Last year, for instance, the highway police fined more than 1.86 lakh motorists for traffic offences such as over-speeding and collected more than Rs 4.3 cr in the way of fines
The country's first expressway, which stretches 94 kilometres from the megapolis to the city of Pune, is soon to start looking like one, with speed limits on cars likely to be relaxed by up to 20 kilometres an hour on the route.
Sources from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is in charge of the six-lane high-speed motorway, and the highway police, told DNA that private automobiles are set to be allowed to zip beyond the current restriction of 80 kmph through straight sections and beyond 40 kmph through hill passes.
A senior MSRDC official admitted that the cap is impracticably low for a route designed for belting at 120 kmph, leading many motorists to breach the limit and enrich the state's kitty by forking out cash penalties. Last year, for instance, the highway police fined more than 1.86 lakh motorists for traffic offences such as over-speeding and collected more than Rs 4.3 crore in the way of fines.
The official further said that since the Centre has revised the speed limit for cars to 100kmph on national highways and 120kmph on expressways, "so we are also working out if limits on Mumbai-Pune Expressway can be increased".
The new speed limits have not been decided yet, but they are sure to give more wiggle room to your speedometer's needle. It is estimated that the new ceiling would be around 100 kmph for straight and tunnelled bits (between Kalamboli to Khalapur toll booth, and from the end of the ghats till Somatane Phata at the Pune end), and 50 kmph on ghat sections.
Vijay Patil, superintendent of police (headquarters), highway police, said the relaxation is under consideration: "The discussion is in the final stage". An opinion will be sought from the state transport department and automobile engineers before the numbers go up on a board.
The revised limit will vary for three categories of vehicles — cars with a passenger capacity of eight seats, beyond eight seats, and goods carriages.
Tanmay Pendse, who has worked extensively with the state government on making travel on Mumbai-Pune Expressway safe, said: "It is not practical to restrict the speed to 80kmph on the e-way. Raising the speed limit to 100 kmph makes sense. For ghat sections, the present limit is fine and should not be increased more than 50kmph."
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
- MSRDC is setting up an intelligent traffic management system on Mumbai-Pune Expressway using technology like cloud-based systems and CCTVs to nab traffic offenders. It will also be used to notify people about traffic jams, mishaps, repair works on the road.
- Under ‘invisible policing’, highway police staff travel in their official vehicles in six zones of around 30km each to detect traffic violations
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