Thane: Traffic Woes At Kolshet Road Continue To Worsen In Monsoon; TMC Turning Blind Eye

Thane: The traffic at Kolshet Road that stretches about 3.7 km has worsened in the ongoing monsoons. The road that runs from Kapurbawdi to Kolshet Creek, is used by Dhokali, Manorama Nagar, Azad Nagar, Kolshet and Brahmand residents.

To ease traffic, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) started Kolshet Road Widening Project in which the existing 20 metre road was to be widened to 40 metre from Dhokali to Lodha Amara. However, due to lack of planning and insistence of property owners halted the project.

Factors that lead to traffic congestion at Kolshet Road

1. Snail's pace work of Kolshet Road Widening Project from Nandibaba Mandir at Dhokali to Lodha Amara Junction.

2. The area is densely populated, with several townships. The number of vehicles using the road have increased in the past decade.

3. Lack of political members' knowledge for town planning, the local politicians are often absent-minded on this issue.

4. Perpendicular Parking by Car owners all along the road

5. Lack of parking Plazas on the road to ensure the road gets decongested from parking

6. Illegal hawkers on roads make traffic worse.

What can help to reduce traffic at Kolshet Road?

1. Kolshet Road Widening Project should be on fastrack mode.

2. Parking Plazas should be constructed.

3. Traffic Police should be deployed.

4. More connectivity should be provided to and fro Kolshet Road.

Residents complain

Preetam Aashish, a resident of Thane who uses Kolshet Road said, "Some key points like Dhokali Naka, Prathamesh Hills get jammed due to haphazardly parking by SUVs there, the traffic Police as well TMC both ignore such things, that is leading to heavy traffic, also the Kolshet road widening project is stuck for the past year."

Sanjay Kelkar, Bhartiya Janata Party (BPJ) MLA from Thane said, "We have time to time to remind the authorities to speed up the widening of the road in Kolshet, In 2022, we were almost successful in restarting the road widening, however it once again has stalled."

Sneha Singh, social activist from Thane said, "The Kolshet road widening project was announced in the year 2021, now it's mid 2023, yet Kolshet Road is not widened, it's shameful that our authorities take multiple years to execute some simple projects."

TMC turning a blind eye

BJP leader Sachin Shingare said, "We had requested the TMC to take a look in the Kolshet road issues, however we feel the authorities are ignoring us, still we presented some of our suggestions to the traffic police to ensure traffic gets smoother in Kolshet road, the local traffic police has agreed to some of our suggestions and will implement measures to curb the traffic, but the question is when will authorities pay serious attention to Kolshet and Dhokali area."

Kunal Bansode a Lodha Amara resident from Kolshet said, "Some structures like Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) Shakha, Jindal House, some shops in Dhokali and others are main reason of the slow pace of road widening project, the locals feel there's a political interference from local politicians that is safeguarding some structures to not get demolished in the road widening project.

Aarti Gupta, Dhokali resident, said, "The traffic in the monsoon has terribly worsened, our local Corporator's family has his office in Dhokali, and in front of his office a huge line of traffic happens daily, still we are not getting any positive support from them."