Traffic congestion on Mumbai-Pune Expressway due to long weekend

Thousands of residents of these cities packed their bags and left for places like Pune, Alibaug, Lonavala, and Mahabaleshwar to enjoy the long weekend

Traffic on Mumbai-Pune Expressway slowed down to a crawl on Friday as a huge number of people from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai went on holiday because of the long weekend. Friday is a holiday due to Guru Nanak Jayanti. This, clubbed with routine offs on Saturday and Sunday, ensured many people a long weekend of three days.

Mumbai-Pune Expressway (File photo)

Thousands of residents of these cities packed their bags and left for places like Pune, Alibaug, Lonavala, and Mahabaleshwar to enjoy the long weekend. Many others left to their native places in Raigad, Satara, Ratnagiri among others.

On Friday the problem started mainly near Khalapur, Khopoli, and some other places in Raigad.

Subhash Pujari, assistant police inspector of the state highway traffic said, “The traffic movement is extremely slow as more and more vehicles entered the road after 7.30 am. The problem is mainly on the Mumbai-Pune lane as most of the people are travelling towards Pune. Therefore, we have stopped the heavy vehicles on the sides and allowed the passenger vehicles and cars to go first. For the heavy vehicles, we create ‘golden hours’ and allow them to go whenever the scenario improves. There is, however, no traffic congestion on the Pune-Mumbai lane. We have also deployed extra manpower to tackle the menace.”

Another senior office from Raigad police said, “The Mumbai-Pune Expressway usually sees more traffic every Saturday and Sunday. This time the situation is a bit complicated as people have a long weekend ahead.”