Two persons were killed and three others injured, while the traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway remained disrupted for the better part of Sunday, following a major landslide adjacent to the Adoshi tunnel near the hill station of lonavla.
Those killed and injured in the mishap were travelling by two vehicles that were crushed after a huge boulder came rolling down onto them from a hillock adjoining the Adoshi tunnel around 1 pm.
The authorities suspended traffic on the both directions of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, after the debris of the landslide impeded the movement of vehicles. By the evening, the authorities resorted the traffic towards to Mumbai, while the movement of vehicles towards Pune continued to be suspended till late in the night. The authorities said that it would at least 24 hours for the removal of landslide debris from the Expressway.
The police identified the two persons killed in the mishap as Dilipbhai Patil (52) of Bhayandar and Shashikant Dhamankar (45) of Dombivli.
The injured, Mangal Mane (35), Sushila Dhamankat (60) and Nirmala Gopal Patel (60) were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU of the the lokmanya Hospital at Nigdi, near Pune
Sunday’s was the second major landslide witnessed along the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in less than a month. In the previous landslide that place near the Khandala tunnel on June 22, 2015. After the previous mishap, the traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway remained suspended for more than 24 hours.
Maharashtra Public Works minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), rushed to the mishap site to supervise rescue and relief operations. He said that the state government would give ex-gratia to the next of kin of those killed in the mishap as per the prescribed norms.
After Guardian Minister for Mumbai suburbs Vinod Tawde took up the matter with Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the Central Railway ran two special trains in the evening between Mumbai and Pune to cater to the needs of the stranded passengers.