THANE: Over the next three days, motorists using the
Vitawa subway route, along Thane-Belapur Road will be inconvenienced as no vehicles will be allowed to ply here. This is a temporary arrangement made by the traffic cops as the civic administration is carrying out road
repair work under the Vitawa railway bridge.
The diversion will be from December 22 to 25. During these days, Thane-bound vehicles will have to take a 10-km detour .
Traffic police official, Anil Mangale said, "We have closed the road going towards Navi Mumbai under the Vitawa railway bridge as it is in a bad state and is in urgent need of repairs. We wanted to carry out repair work since a long time. As this weekend is the holiday season, we decided to carry out work. Those travelling from Navi Mumbai to Thane will have to take either the Mumbra Bypass or commute through Airoli via Anand Nagar toll plaza. The
subway towards Navi Mumbai will be closed as we are placing paver blocks there. The route towards Thane is also one way for Airoli-bound commuters."
If Thane commuters choose to travel from the Eastern Express Highway, they would have to pay the toll twice— once at Mulund and another at Airoli. This has angered citizens specially those who had planned weekend getaways to Pune.
Dr.
Pranjali Kelkar, a resident of Waghbil said, "We have plans to go to Pune over the long weekend. While coming back, we will have to pay two tolls. For these four days, the officials must exempt motorists from paying toll. Everyone will be travelling to various destinations on account of the holiday season."
Although, only a day has passed since the new traffic arrangement has been implemented, commuters said that there was chaos leading to traffic snarls.
The Thane traffic cops too faced similar chaos as the vehicles were seen in serpentine queues from Vitwa subway. All roads leading to Airoli node and Mulund-Airoli bridge seemed crowded throughout the day. The chaos on TB road from Thane city to Mahape was seen for most part of the day.
"The traffic situation was horrible. This indicates complete failure on the part of the traffic department of both cities which did not have a contingency plan before implementing the diversion," said a Kalwa resident.
