Mumbai: A video from the Khalapur toll plaza on the Mumbai Pune highway has gone viral on the internet widely. The video captured on Sunday evening, shows an incident where the chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Raj Thackeray, confronts toll booth workers at the Khalapur toll plaza on the Mumbai Pune highway. Thackeray's ire was triggered by the extensive traffic congestion, including an ambulance stranded in the gridlock, during his return from an event in Pune's Pimpri Chinchwad yesterday.
Upon reaching the Khalapur toll plaza at around 7 pm, Thackeray, visibly upset, took matters into his own hands. He himself got out of his car, alongside MNS party workers and intervened to address the traffic woes, particularly focusing on an ambulance stuck in the midst of vehicles near the toll booth. Thackeray and his party workers stepped onto the road, compelling the toll road administration to allow vehicles, including the ambulance, to pass.
Thackeray Style Bamboo Warning To Toll Workers
The leader issued a stern warning in Marathi to toll booth workers, emphasizing the need for improvement and hinting at the MNS style of intervention with bamboo if necessary. "If you put up a bamboo again here, I'll put up a bamboo... Do you even know how long the traffic is back there?" Raj Thackeray said in his stern warning while allowing all the traffic to pass.
He expressed his displeasure with the lengthy traffic jam, opened the toll booth, and warned workers about adhering to the rules, emphasizing the consequences if improvements were not made.
Thackeray Quoted Rules To Toll Workers
According to reports, Thackeray invoked specific toll collection rules during the confrontation, referencing promises made by Minister Dada Bhuse regarding vehicle release without toll if queues extended beyond a designated yellow line. Thackeray then expressed dissatisfaction with the apparent lack of implementation of these promises.
Avinash Abhyankar, an MNS leader, highlighted that despite long queues at the Khalapur toll booth, toll collection persisted. The party warned of adopting an aggressive stance if toll booth rules and promises, such as those related to queue lengths, were not diligently implemented.
