First showers for 10 minutes halt traffic for four hours on Mumbai-Ahm hwy

The traffic was reported to be moving at a snail’s pace from 6am to 2pm on Saturday on the Mumbai Ahmedabad National Highway. Currently, the work of concretising the highway has been undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India, but the problem of potholes has emerged in the patches which are yet to be concretised

MUMBAI: Season’s first rainfall which lasted barely ten minutes on Saturday morning led to a chaotic situation on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad National Highway, near Ghodbunder Road in Thane, where hundreds of motorists got stuck in heavy traffic for over four hours owing to waterlogging and potholes.

First showers for 10 minutes halt traffic for four hours on Mumbai-Ahm hwy

In order to clear the traffic jam, more than 15 policemen took shovels and began filling the craters on the recently concretised road which was damaged by minutes of rain.

Commuters were agitated as it took them more than four hours to cross the stretch from Fountain Hotel at Ghodbunder Road to Bhayander railway bridge. The traffic was reported to be moving at a snail’s pace from 6am to 2pm on Saturday on the Mumbai Ahmedabad National Highway. Currently, the work of concretising the highway has been undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India, but the problem of potholes has emerged in the patches which are yet to be concretised.

According to Vitthal Chimaji, senior police inspector of highway traffic police, Chicholi Chowkie along the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway, 18 police personnel were on duty on Saturday who had taken up the task of filling the potholes along the stretch on NH-48 and ensuring that the traffic was moving.

“If minutes of rainfall can have this kind of an impact, imagine what would happen if it rains continuously in the next few days. The situation of the highway will worsen,” added Chimaji.

In a subsequent meeting, the highway police officials requested the NHAI officials to use high-quality material which required less number of days for cooling and complete the remaining work at the earliest and the patches - gaps between two slabs of concrete roads, within the next five days so that the commuters do not have to suffer during monsoon.

Moreover, the drainage pipeline which carries water from the mountain near the Vasai-Diva railway bridge in Naigaon was shut down by the railways. In the meeting, the police asked the NHAI to complete the drainage pipework and the railways to give financial aid for the work so that water does not accumulate beneath the bridge and flooding is avoided.

Chincholi highway police have taken the initiative to solve the traffic problems and to do the work of repairing potholes to ensure smooth traffic flow. “The situation would remain the same for the next three months (entire monsoon), if NHAI fails to complete the concretisation the next week,” Chimaji said.