Cyrus Mistry death: Road audit to be carried out in Palghar; joint visit of highway officials, cops planned on Sep 14

Against the backdrop of a road accident in Palghar in Maharashtra that killed industrialist Cyrus Mistry and one more person, the district administration on Thursday asked highway authorities to carry out a road safety audit.

Confirming the development, Collector Govind Bodke told PTI a joint visit of highway officials and police has been planned for September 14 to find out technical flaws and recommend mitigating measures.

They have been asked to put prominent signboards at black spots (perennially accident prone stretches) on the route, the collector added.


"As a short-term measure, rumblers (grooves and indents used as warning and slowing mechanism) will be put up on the highway. Curves will be inspected and measures like lane reduction will be discussed during the joint visit," he said.

Officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said at the meeting convened during the day the Mumbai-Ahemdabad stretch was designed for a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per hour but over-speeding by vehicles was a constant issue.

They said there were nine black spots on the Palghar stretch of the highway, adding that road widening planned in 2013 and setting up of dividers were proper.

It was decided that height of all crash barriers along the highway would be 1.2 metres, an official informed.

Meanwhile, Lok Sabha MP Rajendra Gavit said suggestions he had given in 2013 for road safety had not been implemented by concerned authorities, adding that he would ask police to register cases against highway officials if rectifying measures were not taken.

Former Tata Sons chairman Mistry was killed when the car he was in hit a divider on a bridge over the Surya river near Charoti Naka here on Sunday afternoon.