Commuters fret, fume as Shinde’s convoy halts traffic on WEH

CM’s unplanned visit, trials for pedestrian subway, breakdown of heavy vehicles all add to chaos on arterial road around peak hours

Mumbai: An unplanned visit to Goregaon by chief minister Eknath Shinde led to a traffic nightmare on the Western Express Highway (WEH) and the adjoining Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) on Tuesday morning with commuters facing a tough time around peak hour.

Mumbai, India - May 23, 2023: Huge traffic on Western Express Highway, at Goregaon, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

The motorists lashed out on social media as it took them more than two hours to travel the stretch. There were many emergency vehicles, including an ambulance, stuck in congestion in the adjoining routes due to traffic backlog.

Shinde was on his way to meet Yogesh Kadam, MLA, at his residence in Goregaon, as the latter had recently been discharged from a hospital. However, as it was an unplanned visit by the CM, the north-bound traffic on the WEH was closed for around an hour and this led to absolute chaos.

Usually, when a CM’s visit is planned, there is a protocol in place for traffic management and alternate routes are identified and traffic is diverted accordingly. The unplanned visit took the traffic police and other authorities by surprise.

According to the traffic police officers, the north-bound traffic on the WEH was stopped at around 10 am to facilitate the movement of Shinde’s convoy. After the CM met Kadam, he travelled to Mantralaya from Goregaon, and this led to further traffic snarls on the WEH till around 11 am.

The situation was exacerbated by the closure of two south-bound lanes on the WEH in Jogeshwari due to trials for an underground pedestrian subway that is being constructed just before the JVLR.

To add to the woes of the already-hassled motorists, a water tanker broke down near Milan Subway in Vile Parle and a BEST bus developed technical issues and stopped on the Vakola flyover.

Rekha Bhatia, a commuter, tweeted, “Traffic on WEH going worst day by day chock-a-block traffic at 11 am with no warning from the traffic police department we had to catch a flight were forced to take metro from Goregaon. Had to climb the stairs with all the luggage in the absence of a lift.”

The other contributor to the traffic snarl, the trials for the underground subway was supposed to be conducted in the night and the two lanes, as per the plan, were to be opened for traffic in the morning. However, the two lanes were closed at 10.30 am on Tuesday and opened at 12.30 pm.

“It took us a while to clear the traffic jam, however, it was resumed by 12.30pm,” said Mukund Yada, senior police inspector of Dindoshi traffic police chowkie.

The commuters, who were facing the jams, complained that several emergency vehicles like ambulances were stuck in congestion at adjoining routes due t.o traffic backlog, which extended till Malad from Vakola in Santacruz East.

Motorists tweeted about the situation. Shivnath Thukral tweeted that it was a bad idea to close two lanes of the WEH during peak hours.

Shiamak Sarvodaya, another motorist, said that he was stuck in traffic for more than one and a half hours just to cover a distance of a few kilometers from Goregaon West to the WEH.

Officials said the problem occurred when a part of the WEH was closed, “At the JVLR flyover end, the construction work of an underground subway for pedestrians is currently underway. On Tuesday morning, a patch of the southbound road was closed as they were finishing off trials,” said an official.

Traffic officials said, the work was supposed to be carried out at night till early morning before the peak hour traffic started generating, however, due to some delay, the work continued till 10:30 am, which led to the traffic jam.