AT LEAST 15 persons were killed and another 23 injured in two separate accidents involving a truck and a bus, and a private car, on the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway on Sunday, police said. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Maharashtra Opposition leaders and others condoled the deaths of the passengers in the accident. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 2 lakh to the kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured, while Shinde declared Rs 5 lakh compensation for the fatal victims and full free treatment to all the injured in the tragedy. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday ordered a probe into a road accident on the Samruddhi Expressway.

 

At least 12 people were killed and 23 others injured when a speeding mini-bus hit a container truck on Samruddhi Expressway in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in the early hours of Sunday, police said. As many as 35 passengers were travelling by the private bus. They were returning to Nashik after visiting the Sailani Baba dargah in Buldhana district, an official said. The bus driver lost control over the wheels. As a result, the bus hit the stationary container truck from the rear side near Jambargaon toll plaza, police officials said. Prima facie, the mini-bus was overloaded. It had the capacity to carry 17 people, but nearly 35 passengers were travelling on it. The bus driver claimed he saw the truck in front of his vehicle suddenly before the accident.

 

The truck driver has been detained, he said. The deceased have been identified as Tanushri Solse (5), Sangeeta Aswale (40), Panjabi Jagtap (38), Kajal Solse (32), Rajani Tapase (32), Hausabai Shirsat (70), Zumbar Gangurde (58), Amol Gangurde (18), Sarika Gangurde (40), Milind Pagare (50), Deepak Kekane (47), all from Nashik, and Ratan Jamdade (45) from Vaijapur in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the police said. In the second accident, a car carrying the family members of an All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader crashed on a divider killing three occupants on the spot. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar AIMIM MP Syed Imtiaz Jaleel said that the deceased were from the family of the party’s state General Secretary, Syed Moin. According to some reports, the mini-bus was halted by the highway patrol or the local RTO when the truck crashed into it, and officials said they would probe this aspect.

 

Shiv Sena (UBT) Leader of Opposition Ambadas Danve and MP Sanjay Raut slammed the State Government for the non-stop series of fatal accidents occurring on the Samruddhi Expressway, giving it the reputation of a ‘killer highway’. “The Government is responsible… This is not an accident, it’s a murder,” said Danve after visiting the spot and the patients in the hospitals. “The Samruddhi Expressway was built and inaugurated hurriedly without providing for proper facilities and Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis claimed full credit for, now the concerned ministers must take responsibility and should be sacked for this tragedy,” demanded Raut. The accident evoked sharp reactions from Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, AIMIM and other parties, besides activists.