The city moved at a slower pace on Wednesday due to various rallies organised and consistent bad roads. The Mumbai Traffic Police said, “Due to motorbike rallies organised between 12.30 pm and 4 pm, vehicular movement was slow.” A four-wheeler rally was also organised during the same time. Both the rallies – one from the Western Express Highway (WEH) to Chaityabhoomi in Dadar and the other from Chaityabhoomi to Nariman Point – caused major disruptions to the already slow-moving traffic, complained commuters.
“The traffic was insane! Not like it is any different on regular days (on WEH). But Wednesday was the worst. My vehicle was halted for over 1 hour since motorcycles were passing by and I was stuck for another 30 minutes in the traffic jam that followed,” said Rupali, a resident of Jogeshwari.
Echoing Rupali, another commuter who wanted to reach Mahim for medical reasons said, “I wanted to reach my gynecologist for an appointment but I kept waiting in my car because of the traffic and eventually missed it.”
Since the rallies began in the afternoon, when most schools end, roads connected to schools experienced bottleneck traffic situations. “Buses started piling one after another. In my area (Vakola), there are a handful of schools but every one of them has more than 5-6 buses or more. I think they were halted for some reason, and one after another, accumulated along the stretch, affecting regular traffic eventually,” Vakola resident Sree Deshpande said.
When FPJ visited Bandra, in both east and west, buses including school buses, private buses and BEST buses were stuck one after another. Auto-rickshaws were adding to the congestion. “The customers (who sit inside the auto for a ride) complain to us saying 'ride fast' but how can we go ahead if there is no way for us? Traffic gets bad in the afternoon hours as many school and college children go back and forth. It gets a little normal after 4 pm, but then traffic resumes after 6 pm as office goers travel at that time. There is no traffic management overall,” said a rickshaw driver, requesting anonymity.
Areas like Saki Naka, Vakola, and the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, too, witnessed similar situations throughout the day. The traffic police tweeted the reason for this saying is it 'due to bad roads'. The Juhu circle area, along with the Andheri-Kurla Road near JB Nagar Metro station, too had commuters getting stuck for a prolonged time due to bad roads and slow vehicular traffic movements.
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