Amid the gusty winds and storm-like weather accompanied by drizzling rains witnessed in Mumbai, the impact of it was experienced by the motorists and pedestrians who were out on the roads of the city.
Main spots which saw traffic disruptions were at Dr.BA Road in Byculla due to tempo accident, Eastern Freeway Tunnel near Trombay due to road accident, and outside IIT Bombay in Powai due to road accident.
Things got bad to worse after the collapse of the hoarding in Ghatkopar, near Eastern Express Highway. As per traffic police officials, the mainly affected spots due to the collapse were Pooja Junction in Wadala and Kamraj Nagar in Vikhroli - which are both well connected with the EEH. As the situation got serious and emergency vehicles started to pile up, vehicular movement across the EEH started to slow down, which was further affected due to the rains. Usually, motorists tend to slow down their vehicles during rains tagged along with gusty winds, said traffic officials, in order to prevent accidents - which in turn slows down the traffic movement anyway.
However, with the collapse spot attracting heavy vehicles like cranes and cutters to help in the rescue operations, several VVIP vehicles started to visit the spot as well. The traffic police managed to divert the traffic to adjacent roads but failed to control the traffic situation, complained motorists. “VIP people are visiting the (collapse) shot, obstructing the traffic. Several vehicles along with the ambulances were stuck near Ramabai Colony (Ghatkopar East) for hours,” said a motorist. Another said, “I was in the bus, stuck on the LBS Road at Ghatkopar. The bus didn’t move for almost 1 hour, 30 minutes.”
The effects of this traffic could be seen at Vikhroli end of Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road - which also connects to Powai - where there was another tempo breakdown. Altogether, the traffic police faced a difficult time to manage the traffic and let it flow at normal pace. Vikhroli’s traffic further impacted at EEH near Godrej Village area, while the later effects could be seen at Mulund Naka on EEH. Next to Mulund at EEH where the route connects Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg, the waterlogging and ongoing metro construction’s barricades took the slow movement of traffic to next level - slowing it down - stretching from Bhandup up till Thane end.
At Lalbaug flyover, a tempo skidded leading to traffic blockage, which slowed down traffic up to Kalachowki road and beyond till Byculla. Similarly, at Eastern Freeway, due to an accident near Trombay, the movement slowed down on the stretch, especially between Wadala and Chembur.
Other areas which reported traffic, as per traffic control room are Kanjur Village road in Kanjurmarg East, Western Express Highway from Andheri to Goregaon, Mith Chowki in Malad, Dahisar Toll Plaza, Mulund Check Naka, Nahar Amrit Shakti in Chandivali, etc.
