Igatpuri: The tunnel at Igatpuri on the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg was closed to traffic for one hour on Thursday afternoon to facilitate a drill demonstrating fire safety measures inside the tunnel. During this period, traffic heading towards Mumbai was diverted from Igatpuri onto the old Mumbai-Agra Highway.
The drill was conducted to test the effectiveness of fire safety measures, firefighting systems and the overall safety infrastructure designed to handle potential fire emergencies inside the tunnel. Traffic within the tunnel was managed safely throughout the exercise.
As the Igatpuri tunnel was temporarily closed for the drill, vehicles bound for Mumbai were diverted from Igatpuri via the old Mumbai-Agra Highway through the ghat section, forcing motorists to use an alternative route. Meanwhile, the Mumbai-to-Nagpur lane remained operational, ensuring that traffic heading towards Nagpur continued to flow smoothly.
Officials and staff from the Samruddhi Mahamarg authority, the fire department, the Ghoti Highway Police Station, the District Traffic Branch and the Maharashtra Security Force were present during the fire safety drill.
The exercise involved coordination between various agencies to review the safety measures required to handle emergencies inside the tunnel. Such drills help assess the preparedness and inter-agency coordination of the concerned departments for actual emergency scenarios.
The tunnel was reopened for regular traffic after the drill was completed. Conducted with passenger safety in mind, the drill helped assess the emergency preparedness of the tunnel system on the Samruddhi Mahamarg.
