[freedom]

I traveled to Pune via the expressway today. It was raining all the way from Panvel to Ravet exit.

Visibility in the Ghat section was scary. Fog and Rain were playing a deadly combo. I could literally only see the tail lights at less than 10 meters.
A container had failed a few meters before Amrutanjan Bridge, but that didn't cause a traffic jam as it was in the left most lane.

It got pretty dark by the time I crossed Lonavala, I decided to slow down and just set the Cruise Control to 70.

Barring a stray rash driver in a SUV, everyone else was driving way below 80 and sticking to a lane! No honking, no sudden braking/lane changes. Kudos to them.

People are learning to drive defensively in heavy rains. The only irritant eas the usual 'Hazard lights' menace all the way from Panvel to Ravet.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by freedom

Barring a stray rash driver in a SUV, everyone else was driving way below 80 and sticking to a lane! No honking, no sudden braking/lane changes. Kudos to them.

People are learning to drive defensively in heavy rains. The only irritant eas the usual 'Hazard lights' menace all the way from Panvel to Ravet.

I had the same experience on the expressway while travelling to Lonavala on a rainy Friday night.
Barring the odd 'SUV' - Creta / Brezza that insisted on zipping past, only to hold up the line at the toll booth whilst they passed their phones around hoping to save on the toll.
This is a menace that really needs to be curbed! I wasted 15 minutes behind one car at the toll (A silver Brezza with an Advocate sticker), who was trying these stunts, and it isn't the first time this has happened either.

In fact, there were a few bad patches on the Panvel highway (leading up to the expressway), and I was surprised that people slowed down to let me cut across to avoid these patches.

On my return trip Saturday - the sun was out, and people were zipping past as though they owned the roads!

Just a tip though - in the last two months, two of my friends have had very bad punctures (one cracked his alloy rim) owing to the huge potholes on the Sion-Panvel highway. Stick to the right most lane and you shall avoid majority of them!

[freedom]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

Just a tip though - in the last two months, two of my friends have had very bad punctures (one cracked his alloy rim) owing to the huge potholes on the Sion-Panvel highway. Stick to the right most lane and you shall avoid majority of them!

Right. Thanks for bringing this up even though somewhat off-topic from the thread title

I took the Palm Beach road on my way to Thane but chose to drive back to Pune via Thane Belapur road on Saturday. Big big mistake.

Driving towards Pune.

* Take the service road from just after Rabale (the old NOCIL factory) to Ghansoli. Avoid the Main road as much as possible.
* Drive slow from Turbhe Station to Nerul flyover. Keep enough distance between you and the car ahead. Be prepared to brake at any point
* On the bridge that bypasses Uran Phata (after DY Patil Stadium), watch out for MASSIVE holes (moon craters) right after a smooth section of road.

All these patches have holes big enough to gobble up a full sized adult man (not joking)

Its best to avoid Thane Belapur Road and just take the Palm Beach Road from Pawne to Belapur circle. It will add 7-8 km and 4-5 extra traffic lights. But its all worth it IMO.

[Samir Taheer]

Originally Posted by vivek95

''Golden hours'' for passenger vehicles introduced on Mumbai--Pune Expressway on experimental basis

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/54302812.cms

Great initiative if you drive a car (or bus) but frustrating for the transport guys.

Out off curiosity, what happens to the 'loaded vehicles' that have already entered the expressway before the banned hours? It probably takes some of these vehicles at least 2 hours to complete the expressway. So do they get stopped at 5am? Was anybody from here on the expressway during these times to confirm it was actually a success?

[varunswnt]

http://www.asianage.com/mumbai/mumba...rnment-nod-281

The proposed tunnel in Lonavala region has got the nod, cutting travel time by 20 mins. But this will be done my private contractor and the toll period will be extended further till 2035, so all hopes of going toll free on expressway goes in dump.

I am surprised at the fact that, after raising so many inconsistencies with contractor in toll collection and the way the expressway is monitored and maintained, government has still not bothered to take it in its own hand and go ahead with this project.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37362728

This is another good read on road engineering problems of our roads.

[asit.kulkarni93]

Thanks to this series of potholes at the 2nd Foodmall. Today morning at 5am I had two burst tyres. Managed to reach mumbai with the stephney and tube in the better one of the two burst tyres. Picked up dad from the airport, got 2 new tyres. Balancing and alignment done. Fortunately the suspension and the rims are fine. Mom and dad proceeded to Dhule and have faced no issues. Pls be careful guys!

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

Thanks to this series of potholes at the 2nd Foodmall. Today morning at 5am I had two burst tyres. Managed to reach mumbai with the stephney and tube in the better one of the two burst tyres. Picked up dad from the airport, got 2 new tyres. Balancing and alignment done. Fortunately the suspension and the rims are fine. Mom and dad proceeded to Dhule and have faced no issues. Pls be careful guys!

Attachment 1578540

Thank you for sharing that Asit. Would have been a nightmare for you with two tyre bursts at the same time. By the way what car was it and what was the tyre make? Also how much these tyres had run?

Last Saturday I did a trip to Raigad fort went via Tamhini ghat and returned via Mahad-Mangaon-Pali-Khalapur-Expressway. The 1 km patch at Khalapur, just before we touch the expressway, is horrendous. Huge craters all across the width of the road. Since I crossed it around 09:30pm I had to be very careful not to land up in a situation like yours.

[asit.kulkarni93]

Originally Posted by AutoIndian

Thank you for sharing that Asit. Would have been a nightmare for you with two tyre bursts at the same time. By the way what car was it and what was the tyre make? Also how much these tyres had run?

Last Saturday I did a trip to Raigad fort went via Tamhini ghat and returned via Mahad-Mangaon-Pali-Khalapur-Expressway. The 1 km patch at Khalapur, just before we touch the expressway, is horrendous. Huge craters all across the width of the road. Since I crossed it around 09:30pm I had to be very careful not to land up in a situation like yours.

It was a Toyota Corolla and the tyres were Falken Sincera's 195/60 R15. As they were purchased online I couldn't claim the warranty that Falken provides. The two new Falkens that I bought at Powai are fortunately under their "Free Road Hazard Warranty Policy". No complaints from the tyres as they did their job well. The car was doing 60-65kmph when it directly hit the potholes. Fortunately the suspension and rims are fine. It's very unfortunate that the MPEW emergency number refused to help me with tyre related problems. As this happened near the foodmall I was lucky to walk down to the tyre shop and get the work done while my mom could wait at the food mall. The old tyres had done about 8k kms.

I have been on that Khalapur stretch on my bike. Infact my friend had a bent rim after that ride. It's good that you took the necessary precautions.

[AutoIndian]

Originally Posted by asit.kulkarni93

It was a Toyota Corolla and the tyres were Falken Sincera's 195/60 R15. As they were purchased online I couldn't claim the warranty that Falken provides. The two new Falkens that I bought at Powai are fortunately under their "Free Road Hazard Warranty Policy". No complaints from the tyres as they did their job well. The car was doing 60-65kmph when it directly hit the potholes. Fortunately the suspension and rims are fine. It's very unfortunate that the MPEW emergency number refused to help me with tyre related problems. As this happened near the foodmall I was lucky to walk down to the tyre shop and get the work done while my mom could wait at the food mall. The old tyres had done about 8k kms.

I have been on that Khalapur stretch on my bike. Infact my friend had a bent rim after that ride. It's good that you took the necessary precautions.

You were indeed very lucky that this happened within a walking distance of a tyre shop and just at daybreak. Had it been at a deserted spot and in the middle of night, it would caused you big trouble. Usually during tyre burst incidents, the whole impact is taken by the tyres. This prevents the rims, steering or suspension from further damage.

I had a similar situation couple of years back. It was more or less the same time (05:30 am ish), when I went through a series of 3 pot holes on NH50 at a speed of 80 kmph. The next moment car steering jammed because the left tyre was burst. However the rims, steering and suspension was spared.

[FanaticOnWheels]

Do they accept cards/PayTM at the toll booths now, or is it only cash here? Anyone has any idea about this?

[noopster]

Originally Posted by FanaticOnWheels

Do they accept cards/PayTM at the toll booths now, or is it only cash here? Anyone has any idea about this?

Just came here to update on this. My first card payment at a toll anywhere in India!

[sukhoi30]

Originally Posted by noopster

Just came here to update on this. My first card payment at a toll anywhere in India!

Attachment 1583725

Yes, I saw today quite a few were using this service on the expressway but this has increased the wait time. They should probably have a separate queue for card payers.

[FanaticOnWheels]

That's nice. It would, however, be painfully slow if everyone had to enter their pins after swiping. Given the kind of traffic we already see at toll booths, especially during peak hours, i am not sure how this would work. I think the RBI has waived off two factor authentication for purchases under Rs 2000/-, I am not sure if pin authentication has also been waived off.

PayTM is much faster though (QR Code), however, we need one common infrastructure which would accept any sort of wallet. Today, we have so many wallets that we don't know where to park our money. Some sort of common infrastructure which accepts payments through these wallets should be the way forward (Just the way POS machines accept Master/Visa/AMEX etc).

Will be interesting to see how these new turn of events pan out for our vision of a near cashless economy

[PetrolRider]

After November 9, I am planning to hit the expressway first time tomorrow. How long it will take to clear the queue at the toll gates ?
Should using cash at the toll gate moves faster or it is same for all mode of payment.
I think I will be at the tollgate around 12 in the afternoon.

[sukhoi30]

Originally Posted by PetrolRider

After November 9, I am planning to hit the expressway first time tomorrow. How long it will take to clear the queue at the toll gates ?
Should using cash at the toll gate moves faster or it is same for all mode of payment.
I think I will be at the tollgate around 12 in the afternoon.

Last weekend I went to Pune via expressway and hit the toll booth at 12 noon. There was considerable queue at the toll booths. It stretched almost 2 - 3 kms. However, the queues were moving fast enough. They had stopped all heavy vehicles before the toll booth, so that helped a lot.
Also, they had opened all toll booths for vehicles from Mumbai except 3 booths which were servicing vehicles from Pune.
As soon as the queue started slowing down, they were letting vehicles go through without paying toll. I think you can pay by cash or card as POS machines are available. But, it takes a little bit longer for those paying by card.