Mumbai : Irked with the traffic department’s move to close the right turn from Buddha Colony near Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR), hundreds of motorist on Wednesday got on streets to protest the move.
The motorists who until now took the right turn from Buddha Colony to reach Kurla station are compelled to take a service road along the SCLR for a kilometre before taking a U-turn to reach the station. Thus, increasing they journey time for over 20 minutes.
Over a hundred men including residents in the vicinity got on streets and obstructed traffic for over 30 minutes in the morning near SCLR. They were subsequently detained by the Kurla police and traffic was normalised. Following the opening of SCLR several bottlenecks due to heavy traffic have been created one of which being the ‘right turn
: from Buddha Colony’ which the motorists take leading along to GS Barve road for Kurla Station.
The area has witnessed huge traffic jams following which the authorities have stopped the right-turn and instead the motorists are to take an underpass beneath the SCLR along a service to head for the station.
Jitendra Gupta of Citizen Transport Forum said, “The move is aimed to reduce traffic congestion at that point but will cause great inconvenience to commuters who will now have to go ahead for a kilometre before taking the turn.” The traffic instead put the onus on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and MMRDA.
