Palghar, Maharashtra – A crippling 70-kilometer traffic snarl on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway trapped over 500 students and fellow travelers for almost 12 hours, leaving young passengers without essentials like food or water, according to officials.
The disruption erupted around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday near Vasai in Palghar district and dragged into the early Wednesday morning. It ensnared 12 buses loaded with students from grades 5 through 10, plus some college-goers from Thane and Mumbai, who were heading back from a picnic outing near Virar. Among them were six buses from a prominent Dadar-based school and another six from Malwani, all immobilized in the standstill.
The Dadar group had spent the day at The Great Escape Water Park in Vajreshwari. What should have been a straightforward two- to three-hour return over 70 kilometers stretched into an agonizing all-nighter, with buses not pulling into Dadar until 6 a.m. Wednesday. Parents, gripped by worry, bombarded schools for news as hours ticked by with scant updates.
As darkness fell, the children endured mounting fatigue, anxiety, and gnawing hunger inside the stalled vehicles, which advanced only in fits and starts. Local members of a social organization stepped in amid the crisis, handing out water bottles and biscuits to the kids and guiding motorists through the bottlenecked sections.
Officials attributed the chaos to heavy vehicles rerouted from Thane’s Ghodbunder Highway, where repairs were underway. Adding to the strain, a lane shutdown near the Indian Oil petrol pump on the Thane-bound side—set to last until October 14—piled more pressure on the already burdened artery.
Compounding the frustration, no traffic officers from the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police appeared on site to direct flow, despite the announced closure. Efforts to reach them yielded silence, per eyewitness accounts.
A handful of buses broke free via alternate paths, but most crept onward through the gloom. The episode drew sharp rebukes from irate parents and residents, who decried the lack of foresight and inter-agency synchronization. It underscores urgent calls for enhanced traffic oversight to avert such harrowing ordeals on vital routes.
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