Thane, Kalyan commuters struggle with traffic jams after accident, cracks on bridge

Heavy rainfall continued into Tuesday morning in Thane and Kalyan, leading to one death in a road accident, water-logging in several localities, tree falls, and a wall collapse. The accident and cracks on Saket bridge, along the Bhiwandi bypass on Mumbai-Nashik Highway, have led to massive traffic jams and severely disrupted road commute between Kalyan and Thane.

The accident took place at Kongaon, Bhiwandi, where an overloaded truck overturned on an auto-rickshaw after hitting a pothole, injuring the four people in the auto badly. One of the commuters passed away later in hospital.

Cracks were spotted on Saket bridge, along Bhiwandi bypass on Mumbai-Nashik Highway. The two-lane bridge is used to go towards Mumbai and Thane from Kalyan, and now one lane has been closed. “The engineers are checking it. The traffic police have been informed, and they are managing the traffic,” said Santosh Kadam, chief of disaster management cell of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).

Traffic movement on both Kalyan-Bhiwandi bypass road and Kalyan-Shil road, which helps commuters from Kalyan and Dombivli connect to Navi Mumbai, is badly affected. Amit Kale, deputy commissioner of traffic police, Thane, said: “Traffic movement on both these stretches is very slow due to the potholes.”

“I left home at 8am to reach my office in Navi Mumbai. My bus has been stuck on Kalyan-Shil road for almost two hours now. I reach office by 10 am usually, but today I have not yet crossed half way,” said Sasikant Patil, 48, a commuter.

At Rabodi, 30 feet of a compound wall of Kokani Kabristan collapsed, burying five bikes and one auto-rickshaw in the morning. No one was injured in the incident. Officials of the Regional Disaster Management Cell in Thane have managed to clear the debris.

A Thane RDMC official, who did not wish to be named, said 10 to 12 incidents of tree falls have been reported, and 38 complaints of water-logging have been registered.

Meanwhile, both the Thane Municipal Corporation and Thane Zilla Parishad’s education department declared a holiday for all schools in their jurisdictions on Tuesday as a precautionary measure. Thane district includes rural areas as well.

Train commuters in the city are struggling as services between Kalyan and Thane are running at least 20 to 30 minutes late.

In the last 24 hours, that is, from 8.30am Monday to 8.30am Tuesday, Thane has received 186.02mm rainfall.