Heavy Vehicles To Be Kicked Off Mumbai Pune Expressway

In a bid to cut down on traffic snarl ups and jams, the Maharashtra government plans to ban heavy vehicles from plying on the Mumbai Pune Expressway on weekends and public holidays.

The ban will come into affect over the next weekend.

However, the ban will be in place for only a few hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays. Sundays are exempt from the ban. To ensure that the flow of essential commodities is not locked, heavy vehicles carrying said commodities are also exempt from the ban.

Heavy vehicles from Mumbai to Pune will be stopped at the Khalapur toll post between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Fridays and between 7 a.m. and 12 noon on Saturdays. On the journey back from Pune to Mumbai, heavy vehicles will be halted at Urse and Kusgaon toll booths only on Mondays between 7a.m. and 10a.m.

The old highway between Mumbai and Pune is also exempt from the restriction and can be used by trucks and other heavy vehicles to move between Mumbai and Pune.

The move to ban heavy vehicles is due to the fact that light motor vehicle traffic plying on the expressway increases during weekends and holidays. When these vehicles along with heavy vehicles return to Mumbai on Monday, the expressway gets jammed time and time again.