Some lanes on the 94-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway will remain shut for two hours on Wednesday and Thursday.
Some lanes on the 94-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway will remain shut for two hours on Wednesday and Thursday. This is because the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will be carrying out the process of rock bolting where bolts are inserted to remove loose rocks in order to avoid landslides on the Expressway during heavy rainfalls.
The blocks are divided into four phases where in three phases blocks will be for minutes and in the fourth phase the block will be for a duration of 30 minutes. The first phase block will begin at noon on both the days and the last block will end at 3.30 pm. The major rock bolting work will be carried out near Adoshi tunnel.
Last year, after back-to-back incidents of landslides following heavy rainfalls, the MSRDC decided to carry out work near Adoshi tunnel after a study by the IIT Bombay suggested the same. The MSRDC in May 2016 came out with a '12.1 crore tender to design and carry out the execution of rocks identified as rock fall risk areas as a mitigation measure.
Explaining the reason behind having blocks on Wednesday and Thursday, a state highway traffic police official, said, “On weekdays the traffic flow is lesser when compared with traffic flow on weekends. Hill stations like Lonavala and Khandala are weekend homes to office-goers and having blocks during is not a good idea.”
The Expressway is known for landslides during monsoons, which has resulted in accidents and people losing their lives. The landslide not only results in human loss but also disturbs the normal traffic on the route.
