Mumbai: Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road continues to trouble motorists

The traffic woes at the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) is growing from bad to worse. Motorists travelling via JVLR have been upset and angry as they claim that even the smallest journeys, say a 10-minute ride, takes more than 40 minutes thanks to heavy traffic congestion owing to metro-related construction work, bad quality roads and lack of traffic management by the authorities.

On Saturday evening, the Mumbai Traffic Police tweeted, “A ditch formed in front of Suvarna Temple on JVLR South Bound.

"The BMC and Metro authorities along with the traffic staff are working round the clock.

"Due to this, traffic on the southbound is diverted to Service Road,” which was mentioned as said by the Powai Traffic Division.

#AvoidJVLR trends on Twitter

Motorists and commuters who were travelling via JVLR started tweeting about the situation with the hashtag #AvoidJVLR. Explaining the state of plight, one motorist said, “I spent over an hour just for a 5km ride. Absolutely pathetic traffic, no police to assist. A grand mess affair!” Another one added, “From Vikhroli Highway to Hiranandani it took almost an hour to cover the stretch.”

A Twitter user expressed the traffic jam by saying, “Please do something about the traffic jam on JVLR Powai. It took me 1:30 hours just to travel 1.5 km and I'm still stuck in it.”

Traffic woes at Eastern Express Highway due to JVLR

JVLR, which is also connected to the Eastern Express Highway, caused traffic problems for EEH as well. JVLR is also a primary connector of the eastern and western suburbs. “Once traffic stops at one point, backlog traffic is created, which starts affecting every route that is connected. It's like a domino effect. Accordingly, we deployed officers across the problematic spots to clear the traffic from time to time,” said a traffic police official from Powai traffic division.

He added that the four Metro stations that are coming up at JVLR will be completed soon. "As soon as the basic pillar work of the metro stations is finished, the barricades surrounding will be removed which will free up space on the route for the movement of vehicles,” he said.