THANE: Three days after approaching the state government seeking respite from their daily
traffic woes, members of the
carpooling community, who spearheaded the online movement #FixRoadsElseNoVotes, called on the traffic police officials on Friday.
After their movement gained momentum across various digital platforms and blinker campaign, which united thousands of commuters seeking better travelling conditions over the past two weeks, a delegation had approached the state government with their memorandum on Monday. Following this meeting to highlight the traffic
jams across the MMR, a team of six car-poolers met with DCP Amit Kale on Friday.
In an hour-long discussion, the group explained the various difficulties they face daily because of the Kopri bottleneck, heavy vehicle menace and pothole-riddled junctions, flyovers and interior roads. They also handed him a detailed letter about the same.
“The DCP was extremely open to hearing about our issues. He informed us about a few measures that he had started on Thursday to curb this mess—like diverting vehicle in two rightmost lanes via a small detour to bypass the bottleneck, deputing more staff and more,” said a member of the delegation.
“Speaking about the heavy vehicles, he expressed his helplessness as they were being released from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai despite his repeated pleas. He, however, assured us that strict action would be taken against the heavy vehicles entering the city after their 12pm to 4pm timeslot,” he said.
While the team left the meeting with a sense of surety, the situation continued to remain the same on Saturday.
“All the road corrective measures taken by the authorities are not sustained as the road repair work seems to be done using poor quality material and the continuous influx of heavy vehicles quickens the deterioration of roads. The Kopri bridge was choc-o-blocked on Friday evening and Saturday,” said a member of the group.
“While the intentions of the traffic authorities is good, they need to act fast and come up with solutions. The level of agitation among citizens may rise if the department’s work does not start reflecting,” said a member of the road commuter’s forum, which will be conducting an internal meeting of carpoolers to discuss their next course of action on Sunday.
The DCP heard us out and told us about a few measures that he had started on Thursday to curb this mess, like diverting vehicle in two rightmost lanes via a small detour to bypass the bottleneck, deputing more staff and more
Representative image 
