Pune, 15th June 2026: A major traffic jam on the Pune-Solapur Highway brought vehicle movement to standstill near Kedgaon Chowfula on Monday morning, leaving thousands of commuters stranded for more than four hours.
Long queues of vehicles, stretching nearly 5 to 6 kilometres on both sides of the highway, caused significant delays and inconvenience.
The congestion affected people returning to Pune from Solapur and other cities after the summer vacation period. Students, office-goers, tourists and families travelling with children were among those caught in the gridlock.
Light and heavy vehicles moved at an extremely slow pace, while school buses, private coaches, goods carriers and even ambulances were reportedly stuck in the traffic.
According to local residents, the recurring problem is driven by increasing traffic volume, the narrow road network around Kedgaon Chowfula and inadequate traffic management. They said congestion in the area has worsened over the past few months and called for permanent measures to address the issue.
Traffic police and local authorities have been working to ease the situation and have advised motorists to use alternate routes. However, the heavy traffic load has also resulted in congestion on diversion routes, limiting their effectiveness.
The prolonged traffic jam led to considerable wastage of time and fuel, while elderly passengers, children and those requiring urgent travel faced additional hardships.
Expressing frustration, motorist Ganesh Ladhane said that despite contacting the control room, no satisfactory response was received. He alleged that traffic management efforts had failed, leaving families, women and children stranded for hours without clear information on when normal movement would resume.
