Traffic hit on Thane's Ghodbunder road as truck carrying 50 tonnes of ash breaks down

THANE: Traffic movement between Thane and Fountain Hotel on Ghodbunder Road was affected since morning due to a truck loaded with 50 tonnes of ash developing a snag while climbing the ghat at Gaimukh in the early hours on Thursday.

Deputy police commissioner, Thane traffic, Pankaj Shirsat said the truck, which was trying to climb the ghat, developed brake failure. Attempts to remove the vehicle initially were disrupted due to damage to the truck frame. A pair of heavy-duty cranes had to be deployed to pull the truck off the carriageway, clearing the lanes for other traffic to move.

The snarls will be cleared only in the afternoon, said Shirsat.

Motorists complained of traffic congestion on the road till Fountain Hotel and Manpada as the police struggled to clear the backlog. Ashwin Shah, who was travelling to Panvel, said it took him nearly an hour to cross the spot Thursday morning as traffic was moving in the wrong lanes for a certain stretch. Pradeep Patil, a Gaimukh resident, complained that the menace has become a daily affair as vehicles frequently end up getting stalled at the ascent, leading to congestion.

It may be recalled that the public works dept had scheduled a revamp work that included reducing the steep incline of the ghat by 3 metres, which they claimed would reduce instances of freight vehicles slowing down and developing snags. A simultaneous work of widening the lanes from the existing 30 metres to 60 metres has been approved, but works are awaiting approval from the forest dept.