Minister for public works (public undertakings) Eknath Shinde said according to the data sourced from the police, between 2013 and 2016, a total of 415 people were killed in 1,076 mishaps, which also include seriously injured 490 persons.
Once seen as a signature piece of infrastructure, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway has become a veritable death trap for motorists, claiming over 400 lives in just three years.
Minister for public works (public undertakings) Eknath Shinde said according to the data sourced from the police, between 2013 and 2016, a total of 415 people were killed in 1,076 mishaps, which also include seriously injured 490 persons. This was stated in a written reply to a question by leader of the opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Congress), Manohar Bhoir (BJP-Uran) and others in the state legislative assembly on Wednesday.
The 95-km expressway, which begins at Kalamboli and ends at Dehu road, has has redefined the road travel between Mumbai and Pune and also served as a regional development project. However, even Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) officials admit that the service levels on the road have come down over the years due to issues like saturation and lack of capacity addition.
Shinde said that most of the mishaps on the expressway occurred due to human errors. However, there are compound walls, chain link fencing and barbed wire fencing on both sides of the road. There are facilities on the expressway to provide immediate medical aid to the injured and modern quick response vehicles have been deployed to enhance the medical facilities provided. A trauma care centre and air ambulance has been provided at Ozarde and the trauma care unit will be operational soon.
Shinde added that to prevent mishaps on the express highway, they had put up warning boards and modern steel wire rope crash barriers had been installed on a 14km accident-prone stretch. These stretches will also get high-tensile wire rope crash barriers and a decision has been taken to install it on the remaining length as well.
Wires ropes will also be installed to prevent landslides and a MoU has been inked between the Save Life Foundation, Mahindra and Mahindra and MSRDC in February to make the expressway a zero fatality corridor. In 2013, the state government had admitted that from January 2006 to December 2012, a total of 3,488 accidents on the expressway have been registered with the police in which 854 people have been killed and 1,532 serious and 556 minor injuries have been reported.
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