Written by Ajay JadhavNovember 14, 2025 02:28 PM IST 4 min readPune MP and Union minister Muralidhar Mohol with city Police Commissioner and other officials at the accident spot near Navle bridge (Express Photo)While the authorities have implemented several short-term measures to tackle the issue of road accidents on the stretch from the new Katraj tunnel to Navale bridge on the Mumbai-Bengaluru bypass, the latest accident on Thursday, which led to the death of eight people, has underlined the need for an elevated corridor as a permanent solution to the issue.On Thursday evening, a container truck lost control on the Navale bridge slope, reportedly due to brake failure, and hit many vehicles before crushing a car and triggering a fire that killed the car’s occupants on Thursday evening. A total of eight people, including the truck driver and cleaner, lost their lives in the accident.‘NHAI has approved DPR for elevated road’Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol, who visited the accident spot with the police as well as officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), said, “Frequent accidents on the stretch had made the authorities take preventive measures. Short-term solutions included controlling vehicles’ speed by installing rumblers and speed monitoring cameras, to penalising speeding vehicles, putting up signages, and closing gaps on service roads.”Story continues below this ad“Though the accidents have reduced, the latest incident has once again brought the lack of adequate safety measures back into focus. The only permanent solution is to build a 32-km elevated road from Ambegaon to Ravet,” Mohol said, adding that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) will be urged to take up the construction of the Rs 6,000-crore elevated road on a priority basis.“Once the elevated road is constructed, traffic will flow directly from it, and the steep slope can be avoided. The NHAI has approved the detailed project report (DPR) for the same and completed the necessary process. Only its implementation is left now,” the minister said.Accident-prone stretch falls under various govt bodiesThe stretch where the accident took place falls under various government bodies – the highway is with NHAI, a part of the service road is under the PMC, and the other part is overseen by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), while the road towards Katraj is with the Maharashtra Public Works Department (PWD), said Mohol.“The government bodies will further strengthen measures in their area to check the accidents. A joint meeting of all departments has been called to coordinate and resolve the issue,” he said.Story continues below this adMunicipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram said the PMC will widen the service road alongside the bypass which passes through civic limits so that most of the local traffic is diverted through it. “We will soon take up widening of the service road,” said Ram.The Mumbai-Bengaluru bypass from Dehu Road to Katraj was constructed to prevent traffic movement between the two big cities from passing through Pune city. Later, a tunnel and a bridge were constructed at Narhe to enable vehicles to skip the Katraj area. However, the bypass stretch at Narhe has turned into a major accident spot with many fatal accidents happening due to vehicles losing control due to the long slope from the tunnel to Vadgaon Budhruk near Narhe.The bypass also provides connectivity to Baner, Pashan, Mulshi, Hinjewadi, and Pimpri Chinchwad, leading to rapid urbanisation, which has increased the load on the existing stretch and led to frequent traffic jams.Baramati MP Supriya Sule, who is the executive president of the Nationalist Congress Party (SP), had also taken up the matter with the Centre. “The elevated road is necessary to resolve the traffic problems on the bypass and the area alongside it. The project will be implemented in two phases with first phase from Dehu Road to Pashan and Sus, while the second phase will be from Pashan-Sus to Narhe,” Sule said recently.Ajay Jadhav is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, Pune. He writes on Infrastructure, Politics, Civic issues, Sustainable Development and related stuff. He is a trekker and a sports enthusiast. Ajay has written research articles on the Conservancy staff that created a nationwide impact in framing policy to improve the condition of workers handling waste. Ajay has been consistently writing on politics and infrastructure. He brought to light the lack of basic infrastructure of school and hospital in the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde even as two private helipads were developed by the leader who mostly commutes from Mumbai to Satara in helicopter. Ajay has been reporting on sustainable development initiatives that protects the environment while ensuring infrastructure development. ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:pune