Amit Shah rally: Lessons learnt, traffic unaffected in Mumbai

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah’s rally at Bandra Kurla Complex did not cause any traffic jams in and around the area, Mumbai Traffic Police officials said on Friday.

The rally at the MMRDA grounds in BKC on was held under tight police security, with the Traffic Police deploying personnel around the grounds to ensure smooth flow.

“No traffic snarls were reported anywhere on Friday. We had deployed 40 personnel in the area to keep the traffic moving, and were also monitoring vehicular movement through our CCTV network,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Amitesh Kumar said.

On Thursday, the Traffic Police had announced restrictions on entry of heavy vehicles and goods carrier coming into the city through the Mulund and Navi Mumbai check nakas. They were diverted to alternate routes in coordination with the Mumbai and Thane police.

“The restrictions on heavy vehicles was lifted at 9 p.m. on Friday,” Mr. Kumar said.

A bike rally by BJP workers on Thursday had attracted the ire of Mumbaikars. However, on Friday, there were few complaints, on traffic congestion though some Mumbaikars tweeted about vehicles with BJP flags being allowed to pass through toll plazas without paying up.

“A tip for frnds who r doing Pune Mumbai travel..Hoist BJP flag on ur car and you won’t be charged toll fare at expressway..I politely asked toll booth person why the benevolence for BJP vehicles. He graciously offered me to take his position & collect toll. I smiled & moved ahead (sic),” Twitter user Arun Giri said in a tweet on Friday.

Another user, Shripad Joshi, tweeted saying, “I travelled from pune to mumbai today . 1000’s of vehicle with BJP flag were passing toll naka without paying toll. Toll person told me that they have got instructions not to collect toll from BJP flag vehicles .Who will reimburse such loss to nation?? (sic)”