Vehicles to be checked at Samruddhi toll booths to prevent overcrowding, mishaps: Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis

MUMBAI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday informed the state assembly that instructions were issued to the authorities to check the vehicles travelling at toll booths on Samruddhi Expressway to prevent overcrowding.
The deputy CM’s statement came while responding to MLA Sanjay Raimulkar who pointed out to the house about the ghastly mishap that claimed six lives and left seven injured on the Samruddhi Expressway near Mehkar in Buldhana district. All of them hailed from Sambhaji Nagar.
“There is a black spot on the bridge on the highway. Whenever a vehicle passes from it, it jumps leading to imbalance and driver losing control of the vehicle. Often, it led to vehicles crashing on the sidebars. I want to know whether the government would take corrective measures on such blackspots and pay compensation to the accident victims’ families,” he said.
Replying to him, excise minister Shabhuraje Desai said it was prima facie observed that the vehicle was overcrowded and was overspeeding that led to the imbalance and fatal mishap.
“The vehicle was having a capacity of seven people, but there were 13 inside. We will check whether the government could provide any compensation,” he said.
Leader of opposition Ajit Pawar demanded that the government should take Raimulkar’s information seriously and repair those blackspots where accidents were frequently taking place.
“The minister (Desai) must talk to chief minister Eknath Shinde on the issue. Six people have lost their lives and you need to take that issue seriously. Will you assure the house that you will remove all blackspots from the highway within a month,” he asked.
Admitting that the issue raised by Raimulkar and Pawar was serious, Fadnavis said few such accident-prone spots were found on Samruddhi.
“This is a straight road without any diversion. We have issued directives to repair those black spots. We are soon implementing intelligent traffic management system (ITMS) on the road that would help in controlling the speed of vehicles and also in tracing vehicles in case they met with mishaps. As it was found that Ertiga met with the mishap on Sunday were carrying 13 passengers against its capacity of seven, we have directed authorities to check those on the toll booths and stop them,” he said.
Speaker Rahul Narvekar suggested that if vehicle timing was noted at the entry and exit point on the higHway and action taken against its owners if they exceed average speed, it would help in controlling the speed and subsequently prevent accidents.
Fadnavis said that through ITMS, they would be able to monitor speed and the government would take care of the speaker’s suggestions.