Three weeks after opening, KMP e-way claims two lives

Five persons were also critically injured in the collision between a Hyundai i20 and a Maruti Swift. The i20 car was moving on the wrong side.

Three weeks after a 53-km stretch of the 136 km Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway was opened for the public, two persons died in a head-on collision between two cars on Thursday -- the first fatal accident on the road.

A stretch of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway was inaugurated by Union minister Nitin Gadkari on April 5. (Parveen Kumar/Hindustan Times)

Five persons were also critically injured in the collision between a Hyundai i20 and a Maruti Swift. The i20 car was moving on the wrong side.

The police said one Harish of Hodal in Palwal district was on his way to Sonepat with his wife Kamleshh to attend a wedding in the Swift.

From the other side, Mukesh Singla, a resident of New Colony, Palwal, and his family, including his wife Rajni and sister Asha, were on their way to Palwal in their i20 car. They were returning from Rajasthan.

The police said the i20 driver, Raj Pal of Trivadi village in Palwal district, after picking Mukesh’s sister Asha at Taudo Chowk drove on the wrong side of the KMP Expressway.

When the car reached Alika area, near the under-construction toll plaza near Mandkola, it collided head on with the Swift. Rajpal and Asha were killed in the accident.

Police teams from Camp police station and Sadar police station in Palwal rushed to the spot. They rushed the victims to a local hospital where two were declared dead. Five sustained injuries.

“The accident occurred because the i20 driver was driving on the wrong side of the road,” said investigating officer Sanjay Kumar. “The bodies were handed over to the families after post-mortem,” he said.

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari had inaugurated a 53-km stretch of the 136 km Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway in Palwal on April 5 .