Plans to decongest Ghodbunder Road only on paper

Traffic police and TMC were supposed to remove illegally parked vehicles on the service road

A month after officials met to discuss measures to decongest the crowded Ghodbunder Road, the situation has worsened.

The barricades put up for Metro work have blocked one side of the service road near Patlipada and Brahmand junctions, while the other side is dug up till Patlipada. (Praful Gangurde/ HT)

The peak-hour congestion on the highway owing to the ongoing Wadala-Kasarvadavli Metro 4 project has increased in the past few weeks.

On January 3, Thane Municipal Corporation held a meeting with the traffic police and MMRDA officials to come up with measures to ease congestion on Ghodbunder Road.

Traffic police and TMC were supposed to remove illegally parked vehicles on the service road. But, the assurances to remove abandoned vehicles, illegally parked vehicles, not to dig up service roads and barricade only a portion where the Metro work is on are forgotten.

A status check shows that the service roads have been dug up on both sides near Waghbil junction. The barricades put up for Metro work have blocked one side of the service road near Patlipada and Brahmand junctions, while the other side is dug up till Patlipada.

A civic engineer from sewage department said, “We have undertaken the water remodeling and integrated sewage development project for Ghodbunder area. It was decided to dig only one side of the service road. However, since the water department had already dug up the right side of the service road towards Ghodbunder, the commissioner gave permission to dig the left side with the condition that both works will be completed in a month. Commuters might face problems till then, but both roads will be in a motorable condition.”

The stretch of the service road near Manpada junction is motorable, but people have parked vehicles both sides of the road. Some abandoned vehicles too have been parked.

A TMC official said, “We are continuously taking action against vehicles parked illegally, but the minute we turn our back, the vehicles are back. We have been taking action against double parking but some stretches, especially near car showrooms and commercial complexes, still see vehicles parked on both sides.”

The traffic police claimed that several measures were taken which has considerably eased traffic else the situation would have being chaotic.

A traffic official said, “We have removed most barricades near Manpada junction which was a major bottleneck. The traffic at the junction has been eased to some extent. However, there is lot of traffic on Ghodbunder and the four-lane road has been reduced to three lanes. We cannot decongest the road completely till the Metro work is completed.”

He said the department has also removed most of the abandoned vehicles although they are short of equipment and manpower. “We need dumpers and cranes to pick the vehicles from the roads and transport them to Daighar, where the corporation has allotted a vacant plot to dump the vehicles. Earlier, the vehicles were dumped at the nearby Saket ground. Daighar is far and transporting vehicles is time-consuming. We will need support from TMC to provide us dumpers and cranes,” he said.

The department has also imposed traffic diversions.

Residents are not convinced with the efforts.

Vishal Jadhav, 30, a resident of Manpada, said, “It is a task to drive on Ghodbunder road. There is traffic congestion even in the afternoon. It takes twice the usual time to reach home owning to Metro work and dug-up service roads. Heavy vehicles are seen plying even during the day, adding to the congestion.”