A cement container broke down near Lonavala on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Thursday morning, triggering a traffic jam in the ghat section.
As per videos going viral, traffic was seen to have come to a standstill on the Pune-Mumbai side of the Expressway.
Long queues stretching several kilometres were formed due to the container breaking down.
People were seen getting out of their vehicles and standing on the Expressway, waiting for the traffic to clear.
This comes only a few hours after traffic on the Mumbai-bound carriageway of the Expressway was restored after a gas tanker overturned in the Khandala Ghat section.
The tanker, which carried the highly flammable propylene gas, was removed from the accident site near the Adoshi tunnel in the ghat section, allowing the resumption of traffic on the Mumbai-bound carriageway at 1.46 am on Thursday, an official from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) said.
The tanker overturned on the Mumbai-bound carriageway around 5 pm on Tuesday, triggering a massive traffic congestion that left thousands of vehicles stranded for hours.
Lines of stationary vehicles stretched for as far as 30 kilometres at the peak of congestion. Passengers, including women and children, remain stranded in their vehicles for several hours without food, water, or toilet facilities.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), highway police and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) were deployed at the site to manage the hazardous situation and carry out the gas transfer and tanker removal safely.
