Palghar SP, NHAI brainstorm to stop mishaps on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway

Cops and officials at the SP’s office in Palghar last week. Pic/Hanif Patel

In light of the rising number of fatal accidents on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad stretch of National Highway 48, Balasaheb Patil, the Palghar superintendent of police, held a meeting with officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to find solutions to the problem.

Police sources said that the meeting was held on August 25 at the SP's office and was attended by Senior Police Inspector Vijay Mudak (Talasari police station), Namdev Bandgar (Kasa police station), Satish Shivarkar (Manor police station), Irshad Sayyed in charge of Charoti police station. District Traffic Officer API Asif Beg was also present.

Some of the NHAI officials in attendance were Project Manager Suhas Chitnis, Manager Sumit Kumar and road safety, audit and structure officer as well as the contractor.

A discussion was held to come up to mitigate accidents on the highway. Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident on the infamous stretch on
September 4, 2022.

"Between January and July 2023, around 388 accident cases were registered in the district police station. These mishaps claimed the lives of 183 while 198 individuals sustained serious injuries; 30 escaped with minor injuries," said an officer.

"In the meeting, an attempt was made to find out the reasons for the accidents on National Highway 48 and also what measures should be taken to prevent these accidents. Eleven points have been extracted and the state highway officials are going to start working on them soon," said the PRO of the Palghar police.

Some of the measures are installing more direction signs and speed limit boards, increasing the height of dividers, stationing ambulances at accident-prone spots, creating service roads and filling potholes.