Nagpur: The Shinde-Fadnavis Government found it cornered by the Opposition parties, led by Congress member Nana Patole and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar over potholed roads and growing number of accidents in the State.
Speaking on the calling attention motion moved by members Vijay Wadettiar, Ashok Chavan, Sunil Kedar and others, Patole said the entire State was facing the problems of potholed roads which had claimed many innocent lives. He also flayed the Government for lack of safety measures on roads and highways.
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13 May 2025
“Even the newly opened Samruddhi Expressway has claimed six lives in accidents due to over speeding. Chief minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis drove a contractor’s Mercedes Benz while travelling on it before the inauguration. The government must put curbs on speeding vehicles to avoid mishaps,” Patole demanded
Pointing out the lack of basic facilities like washrooms on Samruddhi Expressway, Pawar said it did not have a sufficient number of pumps for petrol, diesel and CNG and also charging stations for electric vehicles. “There is no speed limit set for running the vehicles on this road. The CM and Deputy CM travelled in a Mercedes which will not be affected, but the Indian-made vehicles are meeting with accidents as their tyres are getting burst. Such things usually happen in summer.”
Expressing concern over the rising trend of signal jumping and wrong-lane driving, Aditya Thackeray blamed it on the lack of discipline and meagre penalty against the offenders. “The highways lacked helplines while there are no lights in the tunnels built by the MSRDC.”
Citing the death of former MLC Vinayak Mete in an accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, MLA Varsha Gaikwad called on the government to make a policy decision to prevent such incidents.
The motion was regarding an accident of Chintamani Travels bus of Yavatmal on October 7 in Nashik where 12 people were burnt alive while 43 were injured after it was hit by a speeding truck. The members also raised concern over private travels taking in more passengers than permitted in their buses.
In reply, Transport Minister Shambhuraje Desai said the government had taken cognizance of accidents at Nashik and other places and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had given directives regarding road safety. “The transport department had deployed flying squads to check the luxury buses. Even the drivers would be tested. Licenses of repeated offenders and permits would be cancelled.”
Targeting the opponents, Desai said the government would probe how many potholes were created in the last two and half years of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) tenure and why they were not filled up. On speeding, Desai said the Samruddhi Mahamarg was designed to sustain speed at 150 km/hour; however, the government had fixed it at 120km/ hour. “Speed guns have been installed at regular intervals and violators are warned at every toll booth. We have started a new project where speed violators are stopped at toll booths and are made part of a safety awareness programme that is of 40-45 minutes. The CM had directed us to beef up patrolling on all exit routes of the state and national highways. More vehicles would be deployed for security,” he said.
