Stranded in traffic jam on highway near Dewas 65-year-old man dies of heart attack

Indore, Jun 27 (PTI) A 65-year-old man died of a heart attack on Friday while being stuck in a massive traffic jam on the Indore-Dewas section of the Agra-Mumbai national highway.
The deceased was identified as Kamal Panchal (65), a farmer who lived in Bijalpur area of Indore.
"We were going from Indore to Dewas by car. Due to the construction work on the road at Arjun Baroda village, there was a traffic jam for about seven kilometers," his son Vijay Panchal told PTI.
"Thousands of vehicles were stranded. My father suddenly panicked and his health started deteriorating," Vijay said.
With the help of other people on the road, he managed to pull the car out of the jam after an hour and took his father to a private hospital in Dewas, where the doctors declared Kamal Panchal as dead due to a heart attack, he said.
"Had there been no traffic jam and we reached the hospital in time, my father's life could have been saved," a grief-stricken Vijay Panchal said.
"The state government must improve the traffic situation on Indore-Dewas road so that nobody else loses a family member the way I lost my father," he added.

He also claimed that though the Indore-Dewas section is witnessing huge traffic snarls for the last several days, no police personnel was around to smoothen the traffic when his father had a heart attack.
Indore Superintendent of Police (Rural) Hitika Vasal said she had received a complaint from Kamal Panchal's family.

"We have deployed police personnel from all the local police stations and some additional force on Indore-Dewas road to streamline the traffic. Routes have also been changed in some places," she said.
Sumesh Banjhal, project director of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), blamed the traffic jams on various ongoing construction works and the rains.
"The NHAI is building an underpass to remove the `black spot' (accident-prone spot) in Arjun Baroda village. The Madhya Pradesh government is converting Indore-Ujjain road from four-lane to six-lane. Construction of a railway over-bridge is also going on on Mangalia-Sanwer road. Due to this, the traffic pressure on Indore-Dewas road has increased a lot," Banjhal said.
The NHAI is trying to complete its construction work on Indore-Dewas road as soon as possible, he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)