Inside the 32-hour operation to defuse a moving bomb on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway

A single spark could have triggered devastation across kilometres; gas transfer required patience, innovation, and precision.

Pune: What began as a routine downhill run through the Khandala ghat section on Tuesday evening unfolded into one of the most technically complex hazardous-materials rescue operations mounted on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway—a 32-hour exercise in patience, improvisation and precision, where a single spark could have triggered devastation across kilometres.

On the Pune–Mumbai carriageway, a gas tanker travelling downhill lost control while negotiating the curve and overturned on its side.

At around 5 pm on February 3, evening peak-hour traffic was building along the ghat stretch near the Adoshi tunnel, a section notorious for sharp curves and steep gradients. Just over