Taloja traffic police fill potholes, much to motorists’ relief

The Navi Mumbai traffic police have come to the rescue of motorists who were facing nightmarish experience on the Taloja MIDC road leading to Kalyan and Ambernath; the traffic personnel have themselves made arrangements to fill up the potholes on this road; the initiative of Taloja traffic police came after the personnel had, for almost 10 days, guided motorists on the water-logged, sludge-filled, crater-ridden road

The Navi Mumbai traffic police have come to the rescue of motorists who were facing nightmarish experience on the Taloja MIDC road leading to Kalyan and Ambernath. The traffic personnel have themselves made arrangements to fill up the heavily-potholed road.

Taloja traffic police filling potholes on the Taloja MIDC road. (BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT PHOTO)

The initiative of Taloja traffic police came after the personnel had, for almost 10 days, guided motorists on the water-logged, sludge-filled, crater-ridden road.

Mahesh Patil, senior police inspector (traffic), Taloja MIDC, explained, “There is a 1,200m stretch on the Taloja MIDC road that motorists use to head to Kalyan and Ambernath. Due to incessant rains here in the past 10 days, the road was water logged, compounded by water flowing in from the hills here. This resulted in huge potholes on the road. In fact, the craters were around 1-1.50 feet deep. This led to several two-wheeler accidents and even the four-wheelers had a hard time as the craters were filled with water, making them invisible.”

Patil claimed that the people were working in unhygienic conditions due to silt on the road. Patil added, “As there was some respite from rain on Sunday, we pooled our resources and arranged for men, material and machinery to fill the potholes and repair the road that was in a very bad shape.”

Shahjehan Chougule, 45, a resident of Taloja and a regular on this road, said, “It was a daily torture driving on the road not knowing when my mini-van would end up in one of the potholes. I have had several near misses. The traffic personnel were doing their best, informing us the areas to avoid but that was easier said than done. It was a pleasant surprise when I took the road this week as the drive was so much smoother.”

Avinash Dadhade, deputy engineer (special planning), MIDC Taloja, said, “The stretch from IGPL Chowk to Nagzari Village Phata has been transferred from MMRDA to us. We have constructed the 8.50km road on it but the 1.20km stretch remains due to land acquisition issues and objections by locals. We are working on the issue.”