After prohibiting heavy vehicles from using the lane on the extreme right of the carriageway on the Mumbai- Pune expressway and Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, the state highway police have extended this restriction to other arterial roads like the old Mumbai- Pune, Pune-Kolhapur, Mumbai- Nashik and Mumbai- Goa highways.
Last month, the highway police had banned heavy vehicles like goods transport vehicles and buses, including those of state transport undertakings, from using the lane to the extreme right on both carriageways of the expressway to reduce mishaps and enhance service levels on the busy road. Violators were to be penalised for dangerous driving.
Since July 23 to August 4, a total of 6,536 cases of lane-cutting have been registered on the two highways, and fines worth over Rs 13.07 lakh have been levied through the six traffic aid posts, namely Khandala, Vadgaon, Borghat, Palaspe, Charoti, Chinchoti, and Manor.
"After covering the expressway and Ahmedabad highway, which have three lanes either way with dividers, we will extend the restriction to national and state highways, which have two plus two lanes with a divider," said a senior official from the state highway police.
A notification in this regard is being issued. Some roads to be covered under this include the old Mumbai-Pune, Pune-Kolhapur, Mumbai- Nashik, Pune-Nashik, Mumbai-Goa, Nashik-Dhule-Nandurbar and Nagpur-Amravati highways. The rule will also include highways in the jurisdiction of municipal corporations and councils.
It will ensure that heavy vehicles will be prohibited from using the lane to the extreme right (next to the divider). They will have to drive in the extreme left lane and use the lane to the right only for overtaking. This will prevent mishaps and instil traffic discipline as otherwise, smaller vehicles like cars then try to overtake from the left and dash into other vehicles, including those that have broken down or are stationary.
The official added that earlier, these offenders who used the wrong lane, were penalised just Rs 200 for not maintaining lane discipline. But, the offence would now attract a higher fine of Rs 1,000 for dangerous driving. "The approval of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill by Parliament will increase this penalty to Rs 5,000," he explained.
"We used to stop these vehicles and spot-fine them earlier and this would create traffic snarls. Now, we will also focus on e-challans. Our staff will click photos of the violations to show that the heavy vehicles are driving in the second lane when that to the left is empty and generate an e-challan. The department is also in talks with road transport authorities in Maharashtra and other states for the recovery of these fines when these vehicles go to their offices for renewal of permits or fitness certificates," the official said.
The authorities have also undertaken an awareness campaign and met office bearers of transporter bodies after the restriction was imposed on the 94km Mumbai- Pune expressway, and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway (NH-48) that connects the city to Gujarat, Rajasthan and further to Delhi. These two roads have a massive volume of heavy traffic. Officials from the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) have also been sensitised.
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