A collision between a water tanker and a Maruti van left three men dead on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Thursday afternoon.
According to the Maharashtra highway police, the accident occurred near the Urse toll naka on the Expressway at around 12.45 pm on Thursday.
“The tanker belongs to Ideal Road Builders, the body responsible for maintenance of the Expressway. It was watering the trees along the Expressway as part of its regular duties, and had watered a patch near the toll naka. The tanker was pulling back on to the road when a Maruti van rammed into it,” said D.K. Bhujbal, superintendent, highway police, Pune. He added that both parties were at fault.
“The tanker pulled on to the Expressway at a perpendicular angle to the flow of traffic, thus risking a collision. The Maruti van, on its part, was travelling at a very high speed and could not stop in time to avoid colliding with the tanker. The fact that we had to use gas cutters to cut open the mangled remains of the van should give an indication of its speed,” he said.
The three occupants of the van were rushed to a hospital in Wadgaon, whe-re they were declared dead before admission. They were identified as Bhum-aram Chaudhary (33), Pok-arram Chaudhary (52) and Nemaram Chaud-hary (24), all hailing from Rajasthan.
“The trio owns grocery shops in the Hingne and Kothrud areas in Pune, and had gone to Rajasthan to attend a relative’s wedding. They were returning to Pune when the accident occurred,” said an officer with the Pune Rural police.
As both parties seem to have been at fault, the police has not yet decided who should be booked for the accident.
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Furore in bmc over nullah cleaning
Bhagwan Parab
Mumbai, June 14
Pandemonium erupted in the BMC house on Thursday during a discussion over nullah cleaning as some offensive words were allegedly used by corporators leading to microphones and cellphones being hurled around.
Opposition leader Dyanraj Nikam of Congress raised the issue in the civic general body meeting, blaming the BMC of not carrying out de-silting work properly even as the monsoon has already arrived in the city. The discussion finally climaxed when BJP group leader Dilip Patel and senior Congress corporator Waqarunnisa Ansari locked horns. Follo-wing the altercation, the opposition members gheraoed Mr Patel. In the end, the house was adjourned.
Earlier, Congress corporator, Binita Vora had said, “While the BMC claims to have done the de-silting works, the nullahs at Milan subway and Irla naka are still in a bad shape.” Standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale said the nullah cleaning work has been done adequately.
Denying that the BMC has been unable to act against illegal constructions near Mithi River, he said the government was at fault as it has not given a rupee for the project.