Traffic cops unclog Kalyan road after auto drivers’ protest

A day after autorickshaw drivers in Siddharth Nagar, Kalyan (East), had called for a bandh to protest the congestion caused owing to the closure of the Lokgram foot

A day after autorickshaw drivers in Siddharth Nagar, Kalyan (East), had called for a bandh to protest the congestion caused owing to the closure of the Lokgram foot overbridge (FOB), the traffic police on Wednesday inspected the stretch and diverted several vehicles to ease the congestion.

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The traffic cops were deployed on the stretch between 7am and 9am to ease congestion.

The Central Railway (CR) closed the Lokgram FOB, connecting Kalyan station to Lokgram, as the bridge was declared unsafe in an audit report by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B).

The 313.84-metre-long and 3.66-metre-wide FOB is the only direct access to the station for 50,000-60,000 residents of Lokgram and provides east-west connectivity.

The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) plans to build a new six-metre-wide bridge.

Earlier, taxis used to drop passengers to Lokgram in Kalyan (East), and the passengers used to take the Lokgram FOB to reach Kalyan station.

Since the closure of the FOB on May 18, the taxis drop passengers at Siddharth Nagar instead of Lokgram, leading to congestion in the area.

Since the Lokgram overbridge shut, commuters have to take the only flyover at Siddharth Nagar, causing a delay of almost 15 minutes.

People also often cross tracks through a short cut to reach the station.

On Tuesday, at least 250 autorickshaw drivers at the Siddharthnagar auto stands in Kalyan (East) stopped plyig for 30 minutes, to protest the congestion caused on the stretch.

“At least 80 to 100 taxis are now days entering the Siddharth Nagar Road and causing congestion at our stands. Earlier too, we had asked the traffic police to come up with a solution but they not respond. Commuters now choose to walk instead of taking autorickshaws as the travel time has increased to 20 minutes from three to four minutes on this stretch due to congestion,” said Kamlakar Idankar, representative of Maharashtra Rickshaw Driver Sena union.

Autorickshaw drivers said the congestion leads to fights with taxi drivers.

“These taxis come from Haji Malang and Nandivli areas. We had met the traffic police after the protest and had threatened to call strike on Wednesday if no action was taken,” added Idankar.

Traffic police will now monitor the area daily to ease congestion. “On Wednesday, two of our officers checked the stretch and also diverted many of the taxis to Lokgram instead of taking the Tisgaon-Siddharth Nagar stretch. This eased the road. The traffic cops will keep a watch on the situation daily,” said a traffic officer from Kalyan (east) division.

The CR had earlier written to the civic body demanding ₹1.38 crore for the repair work of the bridge.

Citing the reason of election code of conduct, the civic body put off the funding. Soon after the code of conduct, in a meeting on May 29, the civic body put forward the idea of constructing a new bridge.

“The railway has sent an estimate for the work without details as of now. We are waiting for a detailed estimate from them,” said Tarun Juneja, executive engineer, KDMC.

A CR official said,” Earlier we had plans to just repair the FoB. Now, when the civic body has plans to build a new bridge, we are preparing a design for it. It might take two more weeks to send the detailed estimate to the civic body.”

Commuters speak

Residents now have to take a longer detour to reach the station.

“Reaching the station was easy earlier as I just had to take the Lokgram foot overbridge. But now, I have to take an autorickshaw to Siddharth Nagar and then take the skywalk to reach the station. This is consuming more time as the Siddharth Nagar Road is congested,” said Sushama Pandey, 36.

“Last time, the civic body cited election code of conduct for delaying the project and now again there will be a code of conduct for Assembly polls and the work will be delayed,” said Manish Saxena, 42, a resident of Lokgram.