Shinde inspects Thane-Nashik highway, tells officials to complete work on war footing

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde travelled on the Thane-Nashik highway and directed officials to complete the eight-laning of the highway quickly. He also instructed officials to fill potholes, install height barriers, and create parking spaces for heavy vehicles. Shinde also visited the site of a recent accident and ordered the construction of a service road and health sub-centre.

Thane: A day after he chaired a meeting to address the bad condition of Thane-Nashik highway, chief minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday travelled on it from Kharegaon to Padgha, and asked officials to complete the eight-laning of the highway on a war footing.

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Shinde stopped at stretches where there were potholes and traffic congestion and directed the officials to fix the problem.

He told the officials to immediately fill potholes using mastic asphalting, the new technology adopted by the government, to ensure smoother flow of traffic.

Shinde also asked the officials to ensure that height barriers are installed to ensure that heavy vehicles strictly take the left lane and leave the right lane for light vehicles and ambulances to travel faster.

Shinde also instructed the administration to ensure parking spaces if the flow of heavy vehicles increases. He asked them to start Shivbhojan thali centres and other facilities so that the vehicles can halt.

He identified the spaces below Rajnoli and Mankoli flyovers to be converted into parking spaces for heavy vehicles and directed the officials to clear some illegal shops erected at Mankoli which were causing traffic congestion.

Shinde also visited a plot at Sape village where the administration plans to set up headquarters for Thane Rural police.

He also visited the spot at Khadavli intersection where two accidents had claimed seven lives and injured seven people in Bhiwandi on Mumbai-Nasik highway in July.

He instructed officials to construct a service road on an urgent basis and a health sub-centre nearby and ordered the administration to put up these proposals as a priority for government approval.

The accidents was debated in the legislative assembly during the monsoon session and Rais Shaikh, Bhiwandi MLA, had demanded a trauma centre near the intersection for emergency care to accident victims.

Hours before he attended the ceremony to lay the foundation stone for Dharmaveer Anand Dighe cancer hospital, Shinde arrived in Thane on Sunday and travelled from Kharegaon to Padgha in Bhiwandi.

He was accompanied by Kapil Patil, minister of state for Panchayati Raj, local MLAs Shantaram More, and Prakash Patil, Ashok Shingare, Thane Collector, Radheshyam Mopalwar, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation’s managing director, officials from the National Highway Authority of India and Public Works Department among others.

Jaijeet Singh, Thane police commissioner, Vikram Deshmane, superintendent of police, and Vinay Rathod, DCP Traffic were also present during the tour.