Festival, long weekend, accident cause hours-long traffic jam on Pune-Mumbai eway

Pune: Travel getaways planned for the long weekend after Ram Navami was declared a govt holiday saw the ghat section of Pune-Mumbai Expressway congested with traffic, aggravated by detours due to the annual Shri Ekvira Devi Chaitri Yatra. Additionally, a crash between an SUV and a car led to a pile-up of at least 10 vehicles on Thursday morning.Heavy vehicular traffic was suspended on the old Pune-Mumbai highway between Wadgaon Phata and the Kusgaon Budruk toll plaza owing to Shri Ekvira Devi Chaitri Yatra festival. Vehicles were diverted to the expressway from Thursday midnight to 12am on Friday. Directives were to detour all categories of vehicles, specifically heavy and oversized ones. Light motor vehicles belonging to devotees were excluded.Superintendent of highway traffic police, Pune division, Vikrant Deshmukh said highway police teams of Raigad and Pune divisions were deployed to ensure smooth traffic, since a heavy rush was anticipated on the expressway because of festivals and long weekend plans. The sheer volume of vehicles caused severe snarls."Around 40 police personnel of Raigad division and 20 of Pune were manning the traffic on expressway. We have cranes and other infrastructure necessary for rescues in place," said Deshmukh.Police had to stop movement in phases at certain points to ease the congestions on the ghats. Frequent commuters have called for speedy completion of works on the missing link, which will help alleviate congestion.A local resident said the traffic jam was intense through Thursday midnight till the morning with devotees out on the annual Ekvira Devi temple yatra. "There were snarls in the morning, easing into a normal traffic jam expected for long weekends. An SUV collided with a car near Khandala. It led to a pile-up of around 10 cars. No one was injured in the incident," he added.