Due to yet another VIP movement, the traffic situation was distressing for motorists travelling via Western Express Highway on Tuesday morning. As per authorities, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was passing by due to which traffic was paused for some time.
Meanwhile, a tanker and a BEST Bus broke down while a patch of road was closed at Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) adjoining the WEH – which altogether worsened the existing situation.
Traffic was held for over 1 hour in the morning – which is considered to be peak hours on the WEH. Several emergency vehicles like ambulances were cramped up in the congestion at adjoining routes due to traffic holding up a huge pile of backlog.
Motorists vent out their frustration on Twitter
Motorists started tweeting about the situation. One user said, “Quite a bad idea to stop one side of the WEH during peak hours for some VIP movement! Why is this an inconvenience to Mumbaikars? Bizarre!” Another motorist named Shiamak Sarvodaya while talking to FPJ said that he along with several other vehicles were waiting for almost 1.5 hours near Goregaon at WEH. “There was a huge line of vehicles waiting and waiting. One of the cops told us a VIP is going to pass by and hence they stopped the traffic as per protocol and the safety of the VIP. It’s the time people go to work, they all have to reach at a certain time. Do they (authorities) only care about VIP passing, and not us, common citizens and their valuable time,” asked Sarvodaya who was travelling towards Andheri for work.
Vehicles break down adding to woes
Like him, several other motorists spent their morning being stuck in traffic due to this situation. Meanwhile, a tanker broke down near Milan subway causing yet another jam at WEH – which stretched up to Goregaon. Following that, a BEST bus broke down near the Vakola flyover due to a technical issue. Local traffic cops said that it took them 25 to 30 minutes to clear the tanker situation. However, by the time the traffic was cleared backlog traffic was already generated near Santacruz - Vakola area, which was then added to the existing backlog traffic from Goregaon due to VIP movement.
“I was stuck for over two hours. Starting from Malad to Airport Road, it felt like ages inside the cab. There were no traffic cops to help ease the traffic whatsoever. The spot near Santacruz (flyover) has always been pathetic with bad roads, and zero traffic management but today (Tuesday) was extraordinarily bad,” said another motorist.
On the JVLR flyover end, the construction work of an underground subway for pedestrians is currently underway. On Tuesday morning, a patch of the road northbound was closed as they were finishing off some work due to the road. According to traffic officials, the work was supposed to be carried out at night till early morning before the peak hour traffic started generating, however, due to some delay the work continued till 10:30- 11 am, which disrupted the flow of traffic.
