An unfit vehicle caused more than five km long traffic congestion last week between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. It took more than one hour for the traffic department to clear the traffic. Both the regional transport office (RTO) and traffic department have made an appeal to motorists to check the vehicles’ fitness before plying during monsoon.
Breakdown of vehicles during the monsoon is common and motorists are advised to check their vehicles before hit the road to avoid any nasty situation. However, on June 11, when there was heavy rainfall in the MMR area, a chemical tanker moving from Mumbai towards Pune on the Sion-Panvel highway developed a technical snag and stopped in the middle of Vashi bridge.
Soon after the tanker stopped, the traffic slowed down and a serpentine queue of vehicles formed from Vashi bridge to Deonar depot in Chembur.
The Vashi traffic unit reached the spot and removed the tanker from the middle of the road and cleared the traffic. Bhanudas Khataokar, senior police inspector of the Vashi Traffic unit said that it took more than one hour to clear the traffic as there was a long queue of vehicles upto Deonar depot in Chembur.
When the traffic department checked the papers of the tanker with its driver Jabir Ali Shaikh, 50, it was found that the fitness certificate was also expired and it is required to be renewed. “The tanker was imposed Rs 10800 fine for not renewing the fitness papers of the vehicles,” said Khataokar.
Meanwhile, both the RTO and Traffic police have appealed to motorists to ensure that their vehicles have cleared the fitness tests and meeting other criteria before plying on road. “In future, such vehicles will be dealt with severe action from RTO and traffic police,” said Khataokar.
