THANE: Commuters using the Bhiwandi bypass stretch of the Mumbai-Nashik highway faced massive inconvenience on Tuesday morning due to a mishap between two heavy trucks near Kalwa, which blocked traffic on both lanes of the arterial highways for a few hours.
The incident was reported around 5 am when a Mumbai-bound truck laden with bars used for construction developed a flat tyre. Its driver lost control of the vehicle, jumped the median, and landed on the opposite lane, crashing into a moving container-laden truck. The collision left traffic movement on both lanes of the highway paralysed for a few hours as rescue officials rushed to the spot to clear the stretch ahead of morning peak hours.
“The collision smashed the cabin of the bar-laden truck, and the entire contents fell on the highway, which had to be removed before moving the damaged truck to the side. The container-laden truck also developed a snag due to the collision and had to be pushed to the roadside. One lane on both sides of the highway was cleared for slow but steady dispersal of the clogged highway,” informed a traffic official manning the spot.
Meanwhile, commuters complained of having to face a harrowing time travelling on the stretch, with a few claiming to have been stuck at the same spot for nearly two hours. “The traffic failed to move even an inch, and we were stuck at the same spot for the last two hours,” said a commuter.
A few others said they preferred to take a detour via the old Nashik highway but ended up getting held up in slow-moving traffic. It took them nearly two hours to reach Thane from Kalyan, which otherwise doesn’t take over 30 minutes.
