Diwali shoppers take over city, disrupt traffic

With Diwali shopping frenzy building up, traffic situation in the city has become a major challenge for the traffic police. Extra manpower has been deployed to ease congestion at chronic traffic spots.

With Diwali shopping frenzy building up, traffic situation in the city has become a major challenge for the traffic police. Extra manpower has been deployed to ease congestion at chronic traffic spots.

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For regular travellers like Reuben D’Souza, the festive season is nothing less than a traffic nightmare. “I travel from Borivli to Saki Naka every day in my Maruti Zen,” said D’Souza.

“Usually I come across three traffic spots while travelling from my house at IC colony to my office. The first is the stretch from Oberoi Mall to Inorbit, which is a bottleneck. The second one is the road along the Hub Mall in Goregaon. But, the worst is the traffic at the Saki Naka junction.”

D’Souza claims that on weekdays it takes him more than half-an-hour to cross the stretch, while it takes only two minutes on weekends. “My travelling time increases significantly during the festive season,” he said.

When contacted, Nandkumar Chougule, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said: “Every year we provide additional manpower to popular shopping hubs like Dadar, Bandra, Worli, and south Mumbai. This year we have taken the necessary measures to ensure smooth flow of traffic. The situation will be taken care of.”