Pune: Here’s why accidents happen frequently at Navale Bridge near Sinhagad Road
Pune: The Navale bridge stretch on Katraj-Dehu Road bypass of Mumbai-Pune-Bengaluru highway has witnessed five fatal accidents this year, of which two were reported in this month itself. It has become one of the hotspots of accidents in the past few years.
The accident site is a point where travellers coming from the new Katraj tunnel and heading towards Sinhagad Road, travel by the service road from the bypass while those coming from Sinhagad Road enter onto the bypass resulting in traffic jams and the slowdown of vehicles coming from the Katraj tunnel.
Not only this but it is seen that many vehicles ply on the wrong side of the road as well as hawkers have also occupied a portion of the road. The incomplete road widening work and potholes are also causes that lead to multiple accidents.
The high gradient slope from Katraj New Tunnel up to Navale bridge has been the major cause of overspeeding of heavy vehicles. Truck drivers lose control over the vehicle due to tyre burst and brake failures on this stretch and collide with other light vehicles. Rapid urbanisation in the areas nearby has also led to high volumes of two-wheelers, cars, autos and other vehicles on the bypass stretch.
Three people lost their lives and six others were injured in an accident when a trailer rammed through vehicles near the Navale Bridge on Katraj-Dehu Road on Sunday (November 29) evening.
Just a week before, three people were injured in two accidents connecting five vehicles. In the first week of October, a truck had rammed through multiple vehicles near the bridge, killing a motorcyclist and injuring eight others.
Mohan Deshmukh from the accident department at Bharati Vidyapeeth police station said, “No doubt it is the accident hotspot. Many people here drive carelessly. The signal timing below Navle Bridge should be increased on priority and multiple blinkers should be placed here.”
Shivraj Pujari, who commutes daily from this route said, “This site has become one of the ‘haunted sites’ now. Since past five years, every other month we hear about some big accident leading to fatalities.
Despite wearing a helmet, one has to risk his life daily. The site is busy as it connects towards Hinjawadi, Wakad, Baner, Pashan where many people ply daily.”
On the other side, commuters using stretch are waiting for the completion of a six-lane concrete road on the four km long road. In February 2019, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari had approved the road widening project to ease the traffic on Vadgaon-Katraj stretch. The work is given to the Central Public Works Department (PWD) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
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