Mumbai: Even as the Sion flyover was opened for vehicular movement after four days on Tuesday, motorists slammed the Mumbai Traffic Police and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) as only the north-bound arm of the Sion flyover was open for operations. However, till Tuesday evening, movement on both sides was operational.
An irate motorist took to the social media to express his anger and said, "Even a kid in Mumbai knows that traffic travels North to South in the morning. But surprisingly Mumbai traffic police opened north bound traffic on Sion flyover. Need some intelligence."
A senior traffic police officer said that due to the recently made repairs on the Sion flyover, vehicular movement will be alternatively allowed.
"If the movement was operational on northbound arm on the highway in the morning, then southbound would be operational in the afternoon, so on and so forth in the evening and night," said the officer.
Madhukar Pandey, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said, on Tuesday morning only northbound traffic was allowed on Sion flyover and the arrangements were made according to the MSRDC officials. However, when contacted, an MSRDC official said, "Both sides of Sion flyover were operational and there was no reason to keep it partially open."
Meanwhile, motorists slammed traffic police, claiming that it was pointless to open the northbound arm as office-goers travel from north to south.
"Lots of students who had to travel south for their HSC examination which began today got caught up in the traffic mess. Moreover, no advance warning was issued," said a Twitter user.
The repair work was undertaken after the findings of a structural audit by the Indian Institute of Technology had revealed that the pillars of the Sion flyover had become weak and needed immediate attention.
