1,400 have died in accidents since 2008 on Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Goa stretches.
Two of the city’s major highways — Mumbai-Goa and Mumbai-Pune Expressway — have witnessed a death a kilometre in the past four years, according to the latest statistics from Parliament.
There have been 1,400 deaths on the highways between 2008 and February 2012, prompting the government to improve safety measures on the killer roads.
Statistics show 1,042 people lost their lives on the 550-km Mumbai-Goa highway since 2008. There were 5,370 accidents on the stretch in the same period in which 3,232 people were seriously injured. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway witnessed 370 deaths since 2009 while 697 were seriously injured in 1,457 accidents on the stretch.
“It is as if these two highways are competing with each other to kill people. People need to be more careful about their driving habits. We have introduced all possible safety measures and shall review the warning signals and assistance put up there. We carry out regular drives to curb rash driving and speeding,” said a senior traffic official.
To reduce mishaps on the highways, the Union government has set a deadline for contractors to finish widening of some stretches while the state government is working on a new alignment through the Bhor Ghat to enhance capacity and cater to the increasing demand.
The length of the Mumbai-Goa stretch of NH-17 is 475.2km in Maharashtra and 122km in Goa. “The dangerous two-lane stretch has sharp curves, but no dividers. Since the highway is very narrow, drivers of special utility vehicles such as Sumo and Tavera and smaller cars tend to speed up so that they don’t trail behind larger vehicles. Most of the accidents happen when drivers try to overtake another vehicle,” said a senior transport department official.
Also, there are very few government medical trauma centres on highways and expressways. Accident victims have to be taken to village hospitals which are far away. Some NGOs and institutions do offer medical facilities, but there are no emergency medical teams to save victims during the ‘golden hour’. The golden hour is the period immediately after injury during which death can be avoided if provided with proper medical treatment.
The Mumbai-Pune Expressway, officially known as the Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway, is India’s first six-lane concrete, high-speed, access-controlled tolled expressway. The 93-km stretch connecting Mumbai and Pune has reduced travel time between the two cities to approximately two hours. It has replaced the older Mumbai-Pune stretch of the Mumbai-Chennai national highway (NH-4) which has become congested and accident-prone over time.
“Earlier this year, the highway police installed electronic-display unit boards connected with real-time information to warn motorists about disruptions or problems on the expressway, if any. This was to ensure they are not stranded on the stretch,” a senior traffic department official said.
The boards are connected to the centralised highway control room so that they are updated on real-time basis. They have been placed at strategic locations to ensure passengers take a different route and avoid the highway.
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