The long-weekend resulted in a traffic snarl at the Mumbai-Pune expressway on Friday morning after a large number of vehicles headed for different places. Officials from Highway police said the traffic increased on Thursday evening and later on Friday morning as there was a holiday on Friday owing to Christmas.
Normally, there is always traffic chaos on Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Saturday and Sunday. However, due to the holiday on Friday because of Christmas, the traffic was seen from Thursday evening as well as on Friday morning.
“The Christmas holiday clubbed with the weekend and thus a large number of vehicles were seen,” said Subhash Pujari, assistant police inspector of the state highway traffic.
As the New Year is just a few days away, many people have already planned their celebrations.
They packed their bags and left for different places. They were heading to Khandala, Lonavala, Pune, and further to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani for holidays. Many people have also gone to their native village in Kolhapur, Satara, and Ratnagiri.
The major traffic problem emerged at Khalapur toll plaza as a long queue of vehicles was seen.
This is the first toll plaza while going towards Lonavala and Pune. Since there is a curfew from 11 pm and 6 am, many people who could not leave the city early on Thursday, decided to leave Friday early morning.
“As many people left at one time from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and other places, this resulted in chaos at the toll plaza as long queue of vehicles was seen,” said Pujari.
He added that this also resulted in slowing down traffic at most of the stretches on the expressway.
“The problem was only in Mumbai-Pune lane while traffic in other lane was smooth,” he added.
