At least three people have died in 30 hours due to a jam of about eight kilometers on Indore-Dewas highway in Madhya Pradesh between Thursday and Friday. After the increasing deaths, the Indore administration came into action on Saturday. The jam, which started on Thursday evening, continued till late Friday night. During this time more than 4000 vehicles got stuck. This created chaos and raised serious questions on road and traffic management.

Reason for jam and first death

According to preliminary information, the main reason for the jam was the construction work going on on the highway and waterlogging due to heavy rains. Traffic was diverted to the narrow service lane, which created a jam situation and vehicles got stuck. The first death occurred on Thursday evening, when Sandeep Patel (32), a resident of Gari Pipalya village, died of a heart attack while being taken to the hospital.

Two more deaths due to getting stuck in highway jam
Two other deaths occurred on Friday. Bijalpur resident farmer Kamal Panchal (62) was going to a relative's house with his family. His son Vijay Panchal said, "We were stuck in the jam for one and a half hours. During this time my father got nervous, he complained of heaviness and he fainted in the car itself. He was taken to a private hospital in Dewas, where doctors declared him dead." The third death was of Shujalpur resident cancer patient Balram Patel (55), who was being taken to Indore.

In a high-level meeting held on Friday, Indore Collector Ashish Singh directed officials of NHAI, IMC, traffic police and PWD to ensure uninterrupted traffic. He told the officials, "There should be immediate and clear action at places prone to jam. There can be no compromise on coordination between departments."