While it was the skidding of a heavy container near Lonavla which brought the traffic to a standstill for more than ten hours on Tuesday, it was the engine failure of a luxury bus that impeded the movement of vehicles for more than three hours on Wednesday.

Hundreds of vehicles were caught in the consequent traffic jam. State Transport buses were running 10 to 11 hours behind schedule, informed an ST official.

When contacted, the ST officials at the Pune-Dadar Asiad bus stand said that the Asiad service was way off schedule due to traffic jams. According to the State Traffic Branch, the rear wheels of a heavy container slipped off at Mundhavare village near Karle Phata on Pune-Mumbai road, about nine kilometers away from Lonavala on Tuesday morning. The incident took place at about 9.45 a m.

A crane from Khandala was immediately pressed into service to remove thecontainer off the road. However, the crane was not able to move the container till 3.00 pm. Later in the evening, another crane brought from Pune and one-way movement was restored by about 8.00 pm. As the traffic was being restored to normalcy, the engine of a luxury bus failed near Kamshet at about 11.30, said traffic branch officials. This once again resulted in blocking of the traffic and the vehicles had queued up till Talegaon. The road was finally cleared by about 4.00 pm.