The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA)'s rail and road traffic committee conducted a survey on 29,000 meters of roads and drew some conclusions on the basis of which it presented certain suggestions to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Ltd to increase safety and carry out some changes in the Mumbai Pune Expressway in a bid to give commuters a better travel.
Pune is an ever-emerging city in terms of business and opportunities and its proximity to Mumbai sees a lot of traffic on the Expressway. But, accidents, robberies and the like occur frequently on the same. Hence, the MCCIA presented with solutions in such cases to the authorities to make the Expressway a safer patch to travel for both commercial as well as personal vehicles.
The Committee has suggested building a Lonavla Khandala bypass due to acute curvaceous bends leading to slow movement of traffic. Hence this bypass may help to minimise curves. This construction will approximately cost Rs 900 crore. Also, a 2 kilo meter patch post Amrutanjan bridge is common between national highway 4 and the Expressway because of which, both the traffic gets mixed, two wheelers ride on the Expressway (where two wheelers are in principle not allowed) and this increases the risk of accidents. The Committee has suggested constructing another alternative road for the same which will cost close to Rs 40 crore. The National Highway authorities albeit are not ready to fund this patch of construction.
MSRDC authorities have in principle agreed to the recommendations put forth by MCCIA but it is not clear when will the decisions be taken on the same. "We will now draft the minutes of the meeting and send to the concerned authorities and then following up on these points will also remain a top priority on our agenda," Chandmal Parmar, chairman, MCCIA-Rly-Road Traffic Management Committee told reporters.
Other issues like leakages of gas like LPG or amonia and the like, lane cutting, over projection or over loading of trucks, available medical help on the Expressway, delays at toll naka, absence of checking of commercial vehicles and such other problems were brought up by the Committee to the MSRDC in the meeting that took place today. Some other solutions were also provided by for many commonplace problems.
All the solutions were accepted by the authorities but since there are many stake holders in the Expressway, there may be an issue cropping up from this regarding who will act on these issues and who will bear the expenses for carrying out some changes on the Mumbai Pune Expressway patch.