The citizens came out shopping in local markets to stock up in anticipation of a nationwide lockdown, causing traffic snarls on interior city roads on Monday. While the traffic movement on Western Express Highway (WEH) and other main roads was less in comparison to normal Monday rush, people were seen shopping to hoard essentials as well as shop in the light of Gudi Padwa celebrations on Tuesday.
According to a senior traffic official, the city market roads were highly congested on Monday due to the shoppers’ crowd. While the interior roads like the SV Road and Link Road in western suburbs saw major traffic congestion, the key roads like Western Express Highway and Eastern Express Highway were slightly decongested.
Unusual crowds were seen in the local markets, wherein people were stocking up essentials, causing traffic jams. Moreover, there was also an extra rush of people shopping for Gudi Padwa and Ramzan. Interior roads of the city like station roads, Link Road, SV Road observed traffic snarls. Unusual traffic crowd was also seen at Malad's Natraj Market, Marol Market along with other chain of supermarkets, said Somnath Gharge, DCP Traffic Western Suburbs
Another police officer said that markets in south Bombay observed similar congestion, while Dadar and Parel markets were jam packed in central region of the city, where patrons were out for Ramzan and Gudi Padwa shopping. Meanwhile, in a crackdown on citizens found violating the lockdown norms, Mumbai police registered a total of 163 cases during the weekend lockdown, which included 89 cases on Saturday and 74 cases on Sunday.
While the police had challaned 905 people for violations on Saturday, over 970 were challaned on Sunday, wherein 13 and 74 vehicles were seized on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Subsequently, over 1,515 people were fined by Mumbai Police on Saturday Saturday not wearing a mask and 1,427 were fined on Sunday for mask violations.
