Mumbai Coastal Road tunnel car fire: Maintenance staff recount panic as motorists abandon hundreds of vehicles

(From left) Sumant Kamerkar, Dinesh Salunkhe, and Ravi Gupta, who maintain the Coastal Road tunnel. Pics/Madhulika Ram Kavattur

Employees of Tap Turbo Engineers Pvt Ltd, the firm that maintains the Coastal Road tunnel, described to mid-day the scenes of chaos that unfolded after a car erupted in flames on the southbound lane of the structure around noon on Wednesday.

Ravi Gupta, field in-charge of the tunnel, whose face was blackened with smoke, said hundreds of vehicles were abandoned in minutes after motorists saw the car in flames. "Even though the fire brigade took just about seven minutes to reach the spot despite the presence of abandoned cars, my team and I tried to bring the situation under control with fire extinguishers."

Traces of smoke are visible on Ravi Gupta's hand on Wednesday afternoon

He added, "Nothing was visible as smoke had accumulated. Many senior citizens were struggling to get access to clean air, so we had to venture near the car to assist them."

Sumant Kamerkar, a member of Gupta's team, said, "We couldn't move the abandoned cars since no one had left their keys inside them, but luckily the firefighters arrived in the nick of time. We worried about the fire spreading. With so many people scrambling in fear, it's a miracle none were severely injured."

Dinesh Salunkhe, his colleague, added, "We were lucky no other vehicle caught fire. I hope no such situation occurs again."

Commuter Speak

Tasneem Shaikh, who was travelling by cab from Nariman Point to Mumbai airport around the time of the incident, said, "The Coastal Road was closed to traffic at Marine Drive, so I had to access it from Breach Candy via Walkeshwar. The entire route was chock-a-block with vehicles due to the diversions, which added 40 minutes to my commute."

Tweet talk

Shaunak Modi (@Pugdandee)
"I have never experienced anything like it. We had just entered the Coastal Road tunnel from Worli when, within a couple of minutes, we saw hundreds of people running towards us. I asked one person what had happened, and he said, ‘Aage aag lagi hai' (There's a fire ahead). I'm not sure what was on fire, or if there even was one, but many people abandoned their cars and ran out, blocking the exit for anyone ahead of them. Zero preparedness, complete chaos. These tunnels need fire suppression systems, and Mumbaikars need better emergency preparedness."

Cyrus Dhabhar (@CyrusDhabhar)
"Complete chaos reported in the Mumbai Coastal Road tunnel. A car was on fire. Shouldn't the fire suppression systems, such as sprinklers, have kicked in?"

Vivek (@VlVEK)
"If we can't even expect proper drainage on our roads, asking for advanced safety and rescue systems is probably too much. Motorists should always assume there's a risk of getting trapped inside the tunnel and use it only when the benefits outweigh the risks."

Vaibhav Mittal (@virtualvaibhav)
"All new tunnels have built-in fire suppression systems. Whether they functioned or not is a different question. Just two days ago, there was a fire in the Dwarka Expressway tunnel in Delhi, and the fire suppression and exhaust systems worked seamlessly."