Mumbai-Pune expressway: Fast tracking deaths

Once touted as a signature piece of infrastructure, the Mumbai-Pune expressway is fast emerging as a veritable death trap due to rising traffic and lack of capacity addition, with over 1,300 people losing their lives on the road in six years. 

In a written reply to a question by Sandeep Naik (NCP- Airoli) and others in the state legislative assembly on Friday, State Health Minister Dr Deepak Sawant said that according to figures available with the police, a total of 4,634 accidents had taken place on the expressway between 2010 and 2016 in which 1,323 people had lost their lives. 

Sawant added that considering the mishaps on the Mumbai- Pune expressway, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was working on providing a trauma care unit on the road and this unit and a heliport had been erected by a private player at Ozarde. 

Quick response vehicles have been made available at three places along with ambulances at four places to deal with accidents. On the Mumbai-Goa highway, permissions have been granted for a rural hospital and trauma care unit at Vadkhal Naka in Raigad district. The state government is also examining the possibility of a medical college and hospital at Oros in Sindhudurg under the medical education department.