Long weekend sees heavy rush on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

As the ten day Ganesh utsav concluded on September 29, many of them began returning to their native as well as work places. There has been a surge in traffic on the highways, leading to congestion on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Long queues of vehicles have been reported in Lonavala Ghat. Furthermore, it has been noted that the holidays have been ongoing for the past four days, with the state government declaring a holiday after Anant Chaturdashi. Additionally, Friday was declared holiday on occassion of Eid-E-Milad. Travellers took an off on Saturday, which wasnt a declared holiday. October 1 is a Sunday while Monday (October 2) is observed as Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of people on the roads, leading to a major traffic jam on the highway.

Many took advantage of the long weekend and went to their native places and while many returned to their work places, while a few others went on a leisure trip to tourists town of Lonavla, Karjat, beachside areas such as Kashid, Shrivardhan, Alibag, etc.

One user on the platform X reported an endless traffic jam at Khandala Ghats on the Mumbai Pune Expressway.

A resident of Pune city, was returning from a leisure trip to Mumbai, faced huge traffic near Panvel.

Another user criticized the management of the expressway, stating that while the entry was banned for heavy vehicles, the entire traffic had been stopped, leading to a 3 km jam. The user suggested that an advisory for small vehicles should have been released beforehand.

Another user advised avoiding the Mumbai-Pune expressway towards Pune due to excessive traffic and suggested taking the Khalapur toll exit instead.

Madhupriya Dhanwate