Two days after Coastal Road crash, Worli residents flag speeding, camera gaps

The Worli Advanced Locality Management (ALM) said that high-speed, reckless driving remained a serious concern, particularly during late-night and early-morning hours and on Sundays

Mumbai: Barely two days after three people were killed and another critically injured when a speeding BMW car on Sunday crashed through a bridge on the coastal road near Lotus jetty, residents of Worli on Tuesday wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the traffic police, raising concerns over speeding, reckless driving and inadequate enforcement on the Marine Lines-Worli stretch of the coastal road.

Two days after Coastal Road crash, Worli residents flag speeding, camera gaps

In the letter, the Worli Advanced Locality Management (ALM) said that high-speed, reckless driving remained a serious concern, particularly during late-night and early-morning hours and on Sundays. Residents said they had complained about such incidents earlier, following which patrolling was increased and offenders were penalised. But the problem had not been completely resolved.

“Some youngsters and sports/performance-car owners continue to drive at excessive speeds, sometimes with loud exhausts or modified mufflers, creating both a serious safety hazard and considerable noise nuisance,” the ALM said in the letter emailed to Joint Commissioner (traffic) Satyanarayan Chaudhary and BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide.

Residents also raised concern about gaps in speed-monitoring infrastructure on the coastal road. CCTV cameras along the road are currently non-functional due to widespread cable theft, barring the tunnel where cameras are functional, they said in the letter.

Sources in the civic body said that out of the 81 cameras along the northbound carriageway and 84 cameras along the southbound carriageway, 18 and 16 were not functional, respectively, as the CAT-6 cables connected to the cameras had been stolen.

There were also gaps in the functioning of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras along the coastal road, the sources said. While three ANPR cameras are installed on the northbound carriageway, only one such camera is installed on the southbound carriageway, and it is non-functional, the sources mentioned.

Speeding and reckless driving on the coastal road is a major concern as around 40,000 e-challans have been issued for traffic violations since September 2024, with 70% of them being for speeding. The traffic police have also flagged technical limitations in the ANPR cameras, saying they fail to capture clear images of vehicles travelling above 120 kmph during the day and 100 kmph at night.

“Our concern is not merely about the availability of cameras but about the continued problem of speeding,” said Viren Shah, chairperson of the Worli ALM.

The ALM has sought deployment of speed-detection cameras or speed guns at suitable locations and strict action against repeat offenders. It has also urged authorities to strengthen patrolling and enforcement, particularly during late-night and early-morning hours and on Sundays, when speeding incidents are more frequent.