No accidental black spots on 50 km stretch of Pune Mumbai Expressway
By: Pune Pulse
September 8, 2023
Pune: Several incidents of accidents on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway are frequently reported. However, after the demolition of the Amrutanjan Bridge, the 50 km stretch from Kiwale to Amrutanjan Point has seen no accidents since 2020.
Speaking to Pune Pulse, Lata Phad, Superintendent of Police, Highway State Police, Pune, gave more information, “Amrutanjan point was one of the major black spots on the expressway, where accidents occurred regularly. However, since the demolition of this bridge and the widening of the lanes along this stretch, there have been no fatalities in this spot in the past 3 years. Amrutanjan Point has since been removed from the expressway’s blackspots list. There are currently no black spots along this stretch of expressway under our jurisdiction.”
As per further information from Phad, an accident blackspot is an area of a 500m long stretch of a national motorway or expressway where either five fatalities and serious injuries have occurred in the preceding three years, or ten fatalities have occurred in the previous three years.
There is no section of the expressway where there have been multiple fatal or serious accidents over 5 years. In the past 12 months, there have been 2 major fatal accidents in which 5 people lost their lives near the Urse Toll Plaza Pune corridor. The spot was declared an accident hotspot by the authorities and several measures were taken to prevent accidents. There have been no major accidents in the last 4 months.
The Highway Police Station(HSP) Pune has implemented several measures to ensure that accidents do not occur, including the painting of rumble strips and the installation of blinker signals. Additionally, side margin lines have been painted and no parking / no halting boards have been installed.
As of the end-July 2023, 22 fatal accidents had been reported along the 50 km stretch of the road, however, none of them occurred within the 500m radius of Amrutanjan Point. To further reduce the number of accidents, HSP is currently working on various initiatives, such as encouraging motorists to wear their seatbelts and adhere to the speed limit.
