The vehicles, a Tata Sumo (MH 8/ AA 9868) collided with a Mahindra jeep (MH 9 MT 735) coming from the opposite direction possibly while overtaking another vehicle, police said. Eight persons in the ill-fated Sumo were on their way to Aatpadi in Sangli district while the Mahindra jeep was proceeding to the temple town of Alandi.

The injured hailing from Sablewadi, Aasgaon and Dusari villages in Kolhapur and from Aatpadi were immediately shifted to a Pune hospital while the condition of four of them was stated to be critical.

Deccan Queen locomotive derails
Pune: Passengers aboard the Mumbai-bound Deccan Queen had a close brush with catastrophe on Sunday morning, when three wheels of its locomotive slipped off the track after a massive boulder crashed down on the rails. The mishap occurred around 8.45 a.m., shortly after the train passed the Monkey Hill signal cabin.

Nearly 300 of the stranded passengers chose to trek the eight kms back to Monkey Hill with their luggage, since repairs and alternative transport was not provided for nearly two hours after the incident. Albeit, the rail-traffic between Pune and Mumbai was not disrupted, thanks to third line in the Bor ghat section, the damaged rail link had not been restored till late in the evening.

Threat to stop tunnel work
Satara: Vikram Shinde, president of Tunnel Action Committee, on Friday said the farmers in Lavanghare village near Urmudi dam project in Satara have threatened to stop the tunnel work from Tuesday, if their demands are not met with.

Lavanghare village is where the dam's main tunnel work is being carried on to take the project's water across the hills to the Kanheri dam's canal.

Shinde claimed that the government promised to pay compensation to those farmers who had lost their land due to the tunnel work and had also promised to supply water to farmers living at the upper side of the dam, lifting the water by 50 feet.

``We have met the government officials several times and pleaded with them for the same but we are fed with false promises. It seems that the government is not interested to pay us therefore we have decided to stop the tunnel work,'' said Shinde. He also said Sampatrao Bhosale, president of the Urmudi project's victims action committee would support them.

The work on Urmudi dam project, the flagship of MKVDC was stopped from March 26, because of the agitation by the project affected .The government did not take any action .Sources say it is unlikely that KVDC projects will be completed before the scheduled year 2000.