Review of the Yashwantrao Chavan Expressway (Mumbai-Pune)

[_raVan_]

Originally Posted by aviraj

The ghats are quite risky to drive on in the dark, especially when its raining and there is truck traffic all around you. But the real risk is not posed by the trucks, but by the over speeding cars which cut lanes at high speeds without much of a warning. Wish people have more road sense and some consideration for other people on the roads.

To top it, there were cab (Indicas and Taveras) drivers who jumped over to the other side to escape the jam I had thought atleast the expressway that too on the ghats would be the last thing for these guys to be driving on the opposite direction. And if there is an accident, everyone will start blaming the expressway.

[Pacifica]

Originally Posted by DeKay

The Most shocking thing I discovered was that Bikers are travelling illegally on the Expressway!!
During my recent Pune-Mumbai trip, I saw around 3-4 two wheelers speeding.

Pooh. Just 3 - 4 bikes? Come and see the Delhi - Gurgaon Expressway (NH-8). You will see hundreds of bikes, auto-rickshaws, and those hideous 3-wheeler auto-trucks. This is in spite of signs warning 2-wheelers & 3-wheelers etc. from using the expressway on every ramp leading into the expressway.

This road is a veritable death trap, especially during rush hour. If you want to understand the term "death incarnate" just see the maniac call center cabs zooming around on this road. Bikers are putting their lives at great risk every time they use this expressway, and still they are there in their hundreds.

This is India. Nothing will happen. We are like this only.

[ptushar]

Looks like the Expressway is now becoming a Pressway and will soon become just a Way. These days there is a photo of a massive traffic jam on the e-way in the papers at least once a week.

Have you noticed that these days there are many places where there are openings in the median (to take U-turn?). Also, these days I have noticed vehicles joining the e-way in between (by crossing the road through these openings). Just last week I saw this Bolero joining the e-way thru this opening; it came as a shock to me to suddenly find a Bolero jutting out from the right.

I pay Rs 165 one-way as toll and will definitely expect expressway like features. This is not one of them.

[idea]

Originally Posted by ptushar

Looks like the Expressway is now becoming a Pressway and will soon become just a Way. These days there is a photo of a massive traffic jam on the e-way in the papers at least once a week.

Have you noticed that these days there are many places where there are openings in the median (to take U-turn?). Also, these days I have noticed vehicles joining the e-way in between (by crossing the road through these openings). Just last week I saw this Bolero joining the e-way thru this opening; it came as a shock to me to suddenly find a Bolero jutting out from the right.

I pay Rs 165 one-way as toll and will definitely expect expressway like features. This is not one of them.

Unlike earlier times, i think twice taking my car on express way (It was fun to drive. I am talking of time when toll was 100/-). I prefer volvo after looking at all those traffic jams especially on weekends. Though i miss on fin of driving atleast i can peacefully sleep in volvo during such conjestions/jams.

I am sure there must be weekly travellers on weekend Mumbai - Pune using their car in this forum. Can you shed some light on current situation? How do you manage these jams?

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by Pacifica

This is in spite of signs warning 2-wheelers & 3-wheelers etc. from using the expressway on every ramp leading into the expressway

Originally Posted by ptushar

Looks like the Expressway is now becoming a Pressway and will soon become just a Way
I pay Rs 165 one-way as toll and will definitely expect expressway like features. This is not one of them.

Originally Posted by idea

Unlike earlier times, i think twice taking my car on express way (It was fun to drive. I am talking of time when toll was 100/-)

Originally Posted by _raVan_

I had thought atleast the expressway that too on the ghats would be the last thing for these guys to be driving on the opposite direction. And if there is an accident, everyone will start blaming the expressway.

Dear All

Please note that regardless of what we choose to name them here, there are no expressways in India. These are just mostly downgraded versions of the older highways (sometimes admittedly upgraded versions) with the same type of arrogant and lawless drivers that always existed.
I am beginning to believe the word expressway is just a misnomer for levying toll all over the place. In fact there should be zero-toll roads as options for so called expressways. I keep repeating myself!

lets stop calling them expressways and hopefully we will drive safer when we start considering them as just ordinary roads where we pay expressway rate tolls.

[noopster]

^^ You're kidding, right?

Mumbai-Pune in the "good ole days" used to take 7 hours sometimes, stuck on the Khandala ghat. The road itself was quite a deathtrap.

The "expressway" part of the stretch these days takes about 60 minutes to cover. The rest is traffic jams at either city end and occasionally at the Amrutanjan bridge. One way to avoid it is to time your runs in a way that you avoid peak hour traffic.

Just because some people use the expressway badly, let's not turn this thread into a tirade against the expressway itself. It is certainly something that I am very proud of since it is a road well ahead of its time (when it was opened) and connecting two cities very close to my heart.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by noopster

It is certainly something that I am very proud of since it is a road well ahead of its time (when it was opened) and connecting two cities very close to my heart.

+1 to that. Till date I have used many arguments with my family to my advantages just to experience the driving on the e-way. It gives me and my Fiesta a new life literaly. So once in a quarter a drive on the e-way is a must. Its the city end traffic at Navi Mumbai and Pune that tests my patience.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by noopster

^^ You're kidding, right?
Mumbai-Pune in the "good ole days" used to take 7 hours sometimes, stuck on the Khandala ghat. The road itself was quite a deathtrap.

whaddya think?!
jokes apart, roads can be anything, but doesnt make a difference till our attitude changes. I am sure you and I and most others here have seen a 'real' expressway. I dont think this is one.
It is better than the older highway, which was no benchmark by itself and for which I was trying to be sarcastic. But that doesnt make it an expressway in the true sense of the term. I understand I may be comparing it with other expressways I have driven on and again there may lie the problem. In terms of road surface, safety features, facilities and so on.

I find it better and safer if I just assume it to be an old highway and be on the alert for morons. After all like you said, the morons are the same as before. Just that they have more powerful tools to wreak havoc with.

I also hold my point for demanding alternate zero toll routes wherever tolled e-ways exist. Why should I have to pay toll for using the old highway or the NH4 down to Satara? whats that about?

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Till date I have used many arguments with my family to my advantages just to experience the driving on the e-way. It gives me and my Fiesta a new life literaly. So once in a quarter a drive on the e-way is a must.

Aw c'mon now. I am sure the Fiesta would be so much more fun on the twisties than the highway. But then thats only my opinion

[Swanand Inamdar]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

I understand I may be comparing it with other expressways I have driven on and again there may lie the problem.

You've answered your own question here. Compare the e-way to other highways in our own country, and the e-way feels much better all of a sudden.

Lets not get into the phoren expressways. They are eons ahead of us.

Why should I have to pay toll for using the old highway or the NH4 down to Satara? whats that about?

Agreed, the first toll on NH4 (Khed Shivapur) has done its duty in collecting taxes, but the other tolls on that road were (and are) in use to collect more taxes, that would eventually be used for the ongoing road widening work.

Are these taxes required by our Govt or not, is a different ball game altogether.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Aw c'mon now. I am sure the Fiesta would be so much more fun on the twisties than the highway. But then thats only my opinion

Agreed, but the e-way does have its share of twisties however few they are in number and I enjoy them. As far as twisties is concerned, I get a daily dose of them in the office run esp during monsoons.

Having said that nothing feels more exciting than revving the engine to 3 digit speeds (although I dont over do it on the e-way)

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

understand I may be comparing it with other expressways I have driven on and again there may lie the problem. In terms of road surface, safety features, facilities and so on.

Originally Posted by Swanand Inamdar

You've answered your own question here. Compare the e-way to other highways in our own country, and the e-way feels much better all of a sudden.

Honestly, in comparison to most other expressways in the country, this one ain't in the top list. However there aren't that many negative-ties. Main issue is the traffic management at the top of the ghats. They need to come up with specific lane management out there, especially during night drives (from Bombay to Pune side). And accident management - every drive on the expressway, I see a new banged up car lying on the side.

But somehow I feel they have resigned to the current situation and feel nothing can be done about it.

I also hold my point for demanding alternate zero toll routes wherever tolled e-ways exist. Why should I have to pay toll for using the old highway or the NH4 down to Satara? whats that about?

+1 to this. And considering the possibility of the toll period probably already expiring for a few of these tolls, the question becomes quite relevant!

[moralfibre]

I took the expressway on one Saturday of June and noticed that a regional political party has put up chairs and a desk for their party workers right next to the toll booths. The party workers have been noting down details of vehicles that pass by the toll booths. Perhaps they are trying to do a survey of how many vehicles pass by the booth and how much money the toll collection authorities are making. Should make an interesting statistic once revealed. Till then, good job!

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

I took the expressway on one Saturday of June and noticed that a regional political party has put up chairs and a desk for their party workers right next to the toll booths. The party workers have been noting down details of vehicles that pass by the toll booths. Perhaps they are trying to do a survey of how many vehicles pass by the booth and how much money the toll collection authorities are making. Should make an interesting statistic once revealed. Till then, good job!

It was MNS who had taken the cudgels against the govt at the toll booths for excessive charging the vehicles. There were seen at many toll booths in the Mumbai/Thane city as well and were noting down the total no of vehicles passing the toll booth against the charge collected.

Will this in anyway reduce the toll or make the e-way safer, I doubt it. The Govt had announced to make arrangement for 4 ambulances(with all emergency care aid) for the e-way, anyone seen them recently.

[moralfibre]

The regional party that had started the process of collecting data has now shutdown all tolls across Maharashtra forcibly thereby making commute of the Expressway, Sealink, Vashi toll bridge, et al free! This is temporary though and will be reverted as soon as the agitators are detained by the police. MNS shuts Mumbai-Pune Expressway toll plazas - Politics - Politics News - ibnlive

[ani_meher]

Wow, MNS really did that?! Some of the toll booths were just evil, which were collecting tolls illegally. So atleast for next few days it s free roaming