Konkan exodus chokes roads, 9-km tailback at Palaspe

NAVI MUMBAI: A nine-kilometre tailback at Palaspe left thousands of devotees from the Mumbai region returning to their ancestral Konkan villages for Ganeshotsav stranded for hours as the annual festive exodus overwhelmed the routes through Panvel and Raigad

NAVI MUMBAI: A nine-kilometre tailback at Palaspe left thousands of devotees from the Mumbai region returning to their ancestral Konkan villages for Ganeshotsav stranded for hours as the annual festive exodus overwhelmed the routes through Panvel and Raigad. The jam, which affected commuters from Friday evening into Saturday is likely to continue on Sunday.

Heavy traffic on the southbound carriageway of the Sion-Panvel highway on Saturday, as people from Mumbai travelled to their home towns for Ganeshotsav. (Bachchan Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

The impact was felt along the Sion-Panvel and JNPT corridors, Kharpada, Palaspe, Indapur and Mangaon, with slow movement also reported near Khopoli on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The worst disruption was at Palaspe Phata, just outside Panvel, where the Mumbai-Pune corridor, JNPT routes and Mumbai-Goa Highway (NH-66) converge before traffic heads towards Konkan.

The trouble began around 9 pm on Friday, when heavy container vehicles from JNPT were stopped under festival restrictions and held in three lanes on and around the Palaspe bridge, leaving limited road space just as the passenger rush intensified. The initial queue, which was about three km, subsequently grew to five to seven km and touched eight to nine km after heavy vehicles became stranded at Palaspe Phata. Motorists exiting the Atal Setu at Chirle also ran into the obstruction.

Starting on Friday midnight, there were continuous lines of vehicles across Kharpada and the Sion-Panvel-JNPT corridor into the early hours of Saturday.

“We were told the restrictions on heavy vehicles would ensure smooth passage for Ganeshotsav travellers. Instead, the police halted the containers right along the main carriageway, blocking three full lanes. It took us over two hours just to crawl past the Palaspe flyover,” said Pratap Sawant, a Kankavli-bound motorist travelling from Airoli.

Girish Renose of Mumbai, travelling to Kankavli with his elderly parents, said his family spent about three-and-a-half hours covering barely two kilometres between the expressway interchange and Palaspe. “We were told the heavy vehicle ban would give families a clear passage to Konkan. Instead, the authorities allowed trailers to park right on the flyover,” he said.

Further south, incomplete highway works at Indapur and Mangaon restricted capacity. At Indapur, the unfinished bypass forced traffic through a narrow market section, while at Mangaon the delayed bypass similarly pushed highway traffic through the town. Five to six kilometres at these stretches took 45 minutes to an hour to cross. The problem was compounded by some trucks and chemical tankers continuing to ply on the highway despite the festival restrictions on heavy vehicles.

The Raigad police have imposed no-parking restrictions on highway shoulders and activated alternate routes through Pali Phata for Pen, Pezari for Wadkhal, Dhaisa around Nagothane-Kolad and Rajawadi, Nizampur, Indapur-Tala and Morba Road around Mangaon.

The disruption came despite advance preparations by the Navi Mumbai police, including identification of hotspots and accident-prone stretches, pothole repairs and road works, diversion planning and emergency towing.

DCP (Traffic) Rahul Khade said that 400 personnel had been deployed, comprising around 250 traffic personnel and 150 additional personnel for security and crowd control. The Panvel Traffic Branch also sought 50 additional traffic wardens from the municipal corporation for ground-level coordination on major highway stretches. “We have taken care to provide maximum facilities to people travelling to Konkan and ensure that they do not face congestion. The government has also taken a good decision to waive toll charges,” he said. Khade urged motorists to use Atal Setu and Uran Phata instead of routes through Panvel and Kalamboli. The police have also arranged towing and recovery support for breakdowns.

Raigad guardian minister Bharat Gogawale said that 5,200 ST buses had been booked, apart from trains, private buses and personal vehicles. “When such a massive volume of traffic moves along a single route, there can be some minor disruptions. However, the kind of severe difficulties faced in previous years are not present this time,” he claimed. Gogawale said that 10 to 12 facilitation centres had been established with drinking water, toilets, tea, snacks and medical supplies for travellers.

With Ganeshotsav beginning on Monday, the Konkan exodus peaked on Friday evening and intensified further on Saturday. Thousands more devotees are expected to travel on Sunday, with authorities expecting the vehicle load to rise further over the next two days. As of Saturday, around 3,000 ST special buses and 3,200 private buses departed for Konkan.