Pune : Take immediate steps to curb accidents on Pune Bengaluru Highway: Dr Rajesh Deshmukh

The District Collector of Pune, Dr. Rajesh Deshmukh, has directed the administration to take immediate steps to curb accidents on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway following a recent accident of a private passenger bus and a truck near Swami Narayan Mandir in Narhe in a meeting held recently.  

The meeting chaired by Pune district collector Dr Rajesh Deshmukh was attended by officials from many government departments including Pune Rural Superintendent of Police Ankit Goyal, NHAI Project Director Sanjay Kadam, PMC Additional Commissioner Vikas Dhakne and representatives from the Save Life Foundation. The meeting held discussed various measures to be taken in connection with the increasing accidents taking place on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway between Katraj tunnel and Navale Bridge.

The officials discussed the reasons of accidents and noted that since the road from Katraj tunnel to Navale Bridge is a  downhill, which prompts the drivers to drive in neutral gear to save fuel, which increases the vehicle speed. This can be one of the cause which creates unnecessary heat and pressure on the brakes, which is leading to brake failure and further into serious accidents. The team of officials came to thr conclusion that the speed limit for heavy vehicles should be reduced, and separate lanes for heavy vehicles should be created. 

Further more the the meeting also discussed other measures, such as establishing police checkpoints for traffic control, implementing Public Announcement Systems (PAS), increasing the number of rumbler strips to control the speed of vehicles, deploying cranes near police stations to provide emergency assistance, and installing height barricades near Dari pool to prevent heavy vehicles from entering the service road.

In addition to these measures, the district collector directed the Pune city traffic branch to provide two interceptor vehicles, one to the rural police and one to the rural police, to immediately stop vehicles violating traffic rules and speed limits on this stretch of the national highway.

A detailed project report of works has been prepared under the long-term measures to prevent accidents on this route, and a meeting will be held soon between the Chief Minister and the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister to discuss the project.

Project Director of National Highway Authority of India Sanjay Kadam said that an exit point is a must so that vehicles who face brake failure have an option to drive towards the roadside.