The city and suburban traffic was thrown out of gear on Friday reportedly due to the Central Railway's marathon 63-hour block, which started on Thursday midnight. To bypass the woes of rail travel, many presumably opted for road commute, however, got stuck in annoying jams during peak hours.
The traffic movement started to go haywire from the morning peak hours starting from 7am, but the vehicles continued to move until a trailer reportedly skidded at the Mulund-Airoli Link Road, said traffic police officials. The process of clearing the vehicle took more than an hour and all this while, the northbound traffic – that goes towards Mumbai – was held up, leading to a beeline of vehicles.
Due to the cascading effect, traffic moved slowly at the Airoli Link Road, which connects to the Eastern Express Highway, and the LBS Road, said police officials. Similar chaotic scenes played out near the Bhandup pumping station, which falls on the Mulund-Airoli Link Road.
The situation finally started to improve post-noon. Almost three hours later, Mumbai traffic police took to X to inform that traffic movement was slow at NESCO – which falls on Western Express Highway (WEH) – in Goregaon. The western suburban traffic faced double whammy as an exhibition at NESCO continued for the entire day, with the hustle bustle of visitors. Between Goregaon and Kandivali at the WEH, the waiting period in the evening was more than 48 minutes. The snarl lasted till Friday late.
The domino effect was evident on the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), especially at the L&T Flyover and Powai areas, where traffic was at a standstill during peak hours. Later in the evening, vehicles at the JVLR, going towards Vikhroli, caused traffic jams at LBS Marg, especially between the Ghatkopar and Bhandup areas.
As the railway block will continue on the weekend, traffic police are expecting a better situation as the number of office-goers will be less.
