More than a million motorists were stuck in a massive traffic jam for nearly 33 hours on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway earlier this month after a gas tanker accident. Days after the accident, the Maharashtra State Road Development Cooperation Authority has reportedly decided to refund toll fees totaling Rs $5.16 crore to all affected.
The disruption occurred on February 3, after a gas tanker met with an accident on the Khopoli stretch of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, leading to a major outage for 33 hours. Many vehicles were grounded, as passengers faced shortages of water, food and basic amenities, HT reported.
Vehicle owners with fee discounts to be refunded
As the disruption continued, the authorities ordered the immediate suspension of toll collection. By then, toll fees had already been deducted from the accounts of many motorists.
In this context, MSRDC has decided to recover the entire amount collected from vehicle owners even after issuing the order to stop toll collection, a senior MSRDC official told PTI. The official said that the refund $Rs 5.16 crore will be processed by the transport company.
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He added that the amount will be transferred directly to the FASTag accounts of the affected vehicle owners within the next few days. The refund will cover tolls collected on both highways. The toll operator has been asked to provide detailed data on FASTag transactions.
Speaking about the reason for the refund, the official said some transactions had already been processed before instructions were issued to stop collection.
“All these transactions are now being examined and the amounts will be returned to the motorists concerned,” the official was quoted as saying.
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Why did the massive disturbance occur?
The 95-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway witnessed a traffic jam after a tanker carrying highly flammable propylene gas overturned near Adushi Tunnel. It took authorities hours to transport the gas and remove the tanker, restoring traffic on the highway by early February 5.
The expressway has been in operation since April 2002, and was intended to reduce travel time between Mumbai and Pune from five to six hours via the old national highway to nearly three hours.
