Rains, board mishap badly disrupt traffic
VIPs visiting the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse spot further compounded woes, say motorists
The city's traffic movement was thrown out of gear on Monday due to unseasonal rains coupled with a thunderstorm and gusty winds. Harried motorists had to suffer more owing to road accidents at arterial routes and the Ghatkopar hoarding mishap. While a tempo accident occurred at Byculla's Dr BA Road, two more crashes took place at the Eastern Freeway tunnel near Trombay and outside Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai.
The bad situation took a pathetic turn after the collapse of the hoarding near the Eastern Express Highway (EEH), Ghatkopar. As per traffic police officials, the majorly-affected spots were the Pooja Junction in Wadala and Kamraj Nagar in Vikhroli; both are well-connected with the EEH. The vehicular movement was further impacted as emergency vehicles and VVIPs rushed towards the hoarding collapse site. Usually, motorists tend to slow down during rains tagged along with gusty winds in order to prevent accidents, which in turn, slows down the traffic movement anyway, explained traffic officials, while giving a perspective of how problematic the scenario was.
Despite pulling out all stops and diverting traffic to adjacent roads, the traffic police failed to sort the mess, complained motorists. “The VIP visits to the (collapse) site obstructed the traffic. Several vehicles, including ambulances, were stuck near the Ramabai Colony (Ghatkopar East) for hours,” said a motorist. Another said, “I was in the bus stuck on the LBS Road at Ghatkopar. It didn’t move for almost one-and-a-halfhours.”
The cascading effect of traffic snarl was seen at the Vikhroli end of the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, which also connects to Powai, where there was a tempo breakdown. Consequently, traffic was hit at the EEH near Godrej Village area, while the effect rippled through Mulund Naka. At the adjoining LBS Marg, waterlogging and barricades placed for Metro construction slowed down the movement all the way from Bhandup up till the Thane end.
At the Lalbaug flyover, a tempo skidded leading to traffic block up to the Kalachowki Road and beyond till Byculla. Similarly, due to an accident at the Eastern Freeway, there was traffic snarl between Wadala and Chembur.