Road to perdition: Gas tanker accident sparks 24-hour traffic chaos on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

Mumbai: Traffic remained crippled on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway for 24 hours after a gas tanker overturned in the hilly Khandala Ghat section, leaving hundreds of vehicles stranded and causing massive congestion on both carriageways, officials said on Wednesday.

Vehicles remained stationary near the accident site overnight, leaving passengers, including women and children, without food, water, or toilet facilities.

According to the expressway control room, the gas tanker carrying highly flammable propylene gas overturned on the busy highway at around 5 pm on Tuesday.

Amid the traffic chaos, the disruption extended for 24 hours by Wednesday evening.

With flammable propylene gas still leaking from the tanker, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) teams have been deployed to manage the situation, and the operation is likely to continue until late evening before normal vehicular movement can be restored, officials said.

Authorities have brought another tanker and the process of transferring gas from the overturned transport vehicle was underway, a police official said, adding the entire exercise will take more than two hours.

The Pune-Mumbai lane on the expressway has been completely shut and the traffic diverted to the old highway between the two cities, he said.

After imposing blocks of 15 to 20 minutes, the vehicular movement towards Mumbai was allowed from the Pune lane of the expressway and this has resulted in reducing congestion, the official added.

The Mumbai-bound carriageway was closed in the interest of vehicle and commuter safety, leading to traffic congestion on both the Mumbai and Pune-bound lanes of the expressway, said a statement from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

The highway traffic police have appealed to motorists to avoid travelling on the expressway as far as possible until normal traffic movement is restored.

The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is India's first 6-lane wide concrete, access-controlled tolled expressway. It spans a distance of 94.5 km connecting Mumbai, Raigad and Navi Mumbai with Pune.

The incident occurred near the Adoshi tunnel in Raigad district when the tanker, allegedly travelling at high speed, lost control due to the slope and overturned. Soon after the accident, gas was found leaking from the tanker, causing panic among motorists, an official said.

As a precautionary measure, the police closed traffic towards Mumbai to prevent any untoward incident.

The traffic towards Mumbai was diverted onto the Pune-bound carriageway for about a 2-km stretch. However, normal movement could not be restored due to continuous gas leak from the tanker, resulting in long queues and crawling traffic even for Pune-bound motorists, an official at the expressway control room said.

The impact was severe on motorists, with several passengers stranded for hours.

An MSRDC spokesperson said toll collection on the expressway has been suspended since early Wednesday.

Due to the snarl on the expressway and old Mumbai-Pune Highway, as many as 165 buses, including Mumbai-Pune Shivneri buses of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), were stuck at various locations.

In view of the disruption, 139 services of the MSRTC were cancelled on Wednesday, officials said.

As per information provided by the transport department, the accident disrupted bus operations across several regions of the state. Of the total 139 cancelled services, 73 were e-Shivneri buses, while 66 were regular bus services.

Officials said 163 MSRTC buses were stranded on the expressway. These included 46 buses from the Satara division, 36 from Solapur, 20 from Pune, 18 from Sangli, 13 from Kolhapur, 12 from Palghar, 11 from Thane and seven from the Mumbai division.

The transport department said passenger safety was being given top priority and alternative arrangements were being made after reviewing the situation. Bus services will be restored in a phased manner once traffic on the expressway normalises.

An MSRTC driver, whose bus was stuck in traffic snarl close to the Adoshi tunnel for nine hours, said his vehicle finally reached Panvel in Navi Mumbai at 3 am on Wednesday.

"We faced an unprecedented traffic jam on the expressway as our bus was stuck just a few metres away from the gas tanker accident spot for hours. Women passengers and senior citizens faced trouble due to unavailability of toilets," the driver said, adding vendors were charging Rs 30 for a Rs 10 water bottle.

People took to social media to highlight the plight of stranded passengers.

"People have been stuck and desperately waiting for help. Please do something," wrote X user VyasKarn.

A conductor of the MSRTC bus told PTI around midnight that their vehicle had been stationary for over six hours near the accident site, leaving passengers without food, water and toilet facilities.

Motorists voiced their frustration on social media, with some describing the expressway as a "parking lot".

"Mumbai-Pune Expressway is a literal parking lot right now. Traffic crawling for hours near Lonavala and Khandala due to a truck overturn. If you absolutely don't have to travel, don't," wrote X user pranav_72.

The Pune-bound motorists were also inconvenienced due to the traffic snarls.

"Started my journey from Andheri West around 7 pm via cab. Will be reaching Pune around 3.40 am. Worst traffic experience I ever had," another X user, Sohit Manik, wrote.

As flammable propylene gas continues to leak from the overturned tanker, expert teams from NDRF, SDRF, and BPCL have been called in to handle the operation, officials said.