MUMBAI: A car caught fire inside the southbound tunnel of the Mumbai Coastal Road on Wednesday afternoon.The blaze triggered heavy traffic congestion before authorities brought it under control and reopened both sides of the tunnel.Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satya Narayan Chaudhary said all officers and traffic personnel were at the spot, adding that traffic movement was expected to return to normal soon.In a separate incident, an automatic fire safety system detected and extinguished a fire in a moving car inside the Dwarka Expressway tunnel in less than four minutes.At around 11 am on Monday, the tunnel’s video incident detection system (VIDS) detected the fire. Officials said the control room alerted the fire response team within 47 seconds, triggering the tunnel’s fire mode. The high-pressure water mist system was automatically activated and suppressed the blaze. The tunnel’s integrated fire safety system, comprising overhead sprinklers, heat sensors and a deluge fire suppression mechanism, came into operation within seconds, preventing the fire from spreading to nearby vehicles.
