Commuters vented their anger on social media, saying all three lanes were occupied by trucks. Poor lane discipline worsened the situation. They questioned if paying a Rs320 toll was justified when it took over five hours to commute between Pune and Mumbai, not to mention the stress they faced.Raja Narasimhan described his morning commute as a nightmare. “As we approached the Lonavala exit from Pune, traffic came to a grinding halt. What should’ve been a smooth ride turned into a 30-minute ordeal. The culprit? Indisciplined driving and a glaring lack of traffic management at this critical exit, that too during this long weekend. Vehicles were sandwiched between slow-moving trucks and tankers, with no authorities in sight. This chaos unfolded at the peak of the morning rush, just as the long weekend began. The approach to the next junction at Ramakrishna Hotel made us wait for another 20 minutes,” Raja Narasimhan told TOI.Many who checked Google Maps before stepping out saw the routes marked in red, indicating traffic congestion, and postponed their travel. Kedar Joshi dropped his plan of travelling to Pune to visit his parents after seeing congestion for 5-10km.“My kids are young, and they would have been irritated and agitated in long traffic jams. The govt should seriously study the feasibility of RRTS on high-traffic routes like Mumbai–Pune–Bengaluru, supported by efficient feeder bus, tram or Metro feeder services,” said Joshi, adding that more railway lines were needed to accommodate the population.He said focusing only on building 10-lane highways would not help because new cars would be added and the expressway would not be able to carry so much load even if the missing link was completed. “The anticipation, planning and preventive measures for traffic congestion are absent in the govt machinery. It is eternally in reaction mode, which leads to huge loss of man-hours and fuel,” Joshi told TOI.Commuters said vehicle breakdowns added to the chaos. Raj Bogawat tweeted that it took him seven hours to travel from Dadar, Mumbai, to Pune station on Saturday. “More than 30 to 50 vehicles broke down on the way. Many were tempos and huge trucks,” he said.Parag Agarawal and family departed from Mumbai at 6am on Saturday en route to Mahabaleshwar but found themselves stuck in a traffic jam on the ghat section. “It took us two hours to navigate the ghat section, which typically requires only 10 to 15 minutes. The most alarming aspect was the lane indiscipline exhibited by heavy vehicles, which constantly changed lanes, leading to a backlog of traffic. There was a complete absence of highway police or any NHAI personnel along the entire expressway to manage the situation,” said Agarawal.People who thought of leaving on Friday evening to avoid the Saturday traffic were also stuck. Rushikesh Agre said he left Mumbai on Friday evening but got stuck on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway and finally reached Pune around 2am. He also blamed the trucks occupying all lanes, plus a lack of visible police to regulate the movement over the ghats, for the situation.SP Vikrant Deshmukh, highway safety patrol, Pune division, said additional manpower was deployed by the police department in anticipation of the weekend rush, but the large number of vehicles led to blocks in the ghat area. “We did block the traffic moving from Pune to Mumbai during multiple intervals and allowed those travelling from Mumbai to Lonavala to pass because the traffic from Mumbai to Lonavala was causing the jam. There was heavy traffic towards Mahabaleshwar also, especially around Khambatki ghat, but it was moving traffic. Yet we had additional staff and cranes to ease the movement,” said Deshmukh.
