More than 200 buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) were stranded in the traffic jam caused by the gas tanker accident on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway. Officials said about 140 trips were cancelled on Wednesday, affecting passengers and causing major inconvenience to those stuck on the route.
According to officials, buses from the Mumbai Central, Kurla and Parel depots reached their destinations 12 to 14 hours late. This disrupted driver and conductor schedules, and MSRTC cancelled several trips, saying it was unsafe to put exhausted staff back on duty. Services will be restored in phases once traffic returns to normal.
The Mumbai–Pune e-Shivneri service was the worst affected. Seventy-three trips of this service were cancelled, along with 66 other trips. On Wednesday morning, buses from Vandana and Khopat depots to Swargate started as usual.
The first bus left at 9 am, but passengers on the 11 am service were informed of the highway situation after reaching Panvel. To avoid getting stuck in the long traffic jam, passengers asked the driver and conductor to turn back to Thane. The bus returned from Panvel as requested. There are 18 trips from Thane to Pune every day. Ten of these were cancelled on Wednesday.