The Palghar police, along with the stakeholders, will inspect the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway within its jurisdiction to come up with an immediate short-term solutions in order to avert mishaps. The inspection is likely to be carried out on Wednesday, an official said. Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry had died in a car crash on September 4 on the Palghar stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway.
“A joint visit by, including National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), District Collector, Regional Transport Office (RTO) Police and PWD officials will inspect the 78 km stretch at the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in Palghar district on Wednesday. Suggestions will be given to the stakeholders from our side and measures would be discussed to avoid mishaps," Superintendent of Police, Palghar, Balasaheb Patil said.
He further added, “Though we have asked the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) in Pune to carry out a road safety audit of black spots on the highways within Palghar, we want some immediate solutions. Long term solutions is a lengthy process, for instance if a bridge has to be repaired, a line has to be increased on the road, tenders are floated and the process takes time. After the inspection, a report will be handed over to the stakeholders and we would ask them to take immediate short-term measures.”
According to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, a black spot is defined as any 500m stretch of national highway where five accidents involving fatalities or serious injuries have taken place in the preceding three calendar years or 10 fatalities have been recorded in that period.
"We had an office of NHAI at Ghodbunder Road which was later closed down and currently we coordinate with Vadodara-based NHAI office for any highway-related issues or work, such as getting signboards put up or any others measures to be done. We have now asked the NHAI officials to make the office at Ghodbunder Road functional. If the Ghodbunder-based office becomes functional, things will get done swiftly. If required, a request will be put up through proper channels,” said SP Patil.
Meanwhile, officials from Mercedes took the accident-stricken vehicle to their workshop in Thane. Police sources also said that a team of experts from company’s Hong Kong office will also be visiting the Thane workshop.
Besides Mistry, one of his co-passengers, Jahangir Pandole, also had died in the accident. Police sources said that Mistry and the other deceased person were sitting on the back seat of the car. The other two occupants in the car who were injured in the accident were identified as Dr Anahita Pandole and Darius Pandole. According to the police, Mistry and others were travelling on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway in a Mercedes car having registration number MH47AB6705 and were headed to Mumbai from Udwada in Gujarat.
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