The police, if required, will impose parking restrictions at 114 places, ban goods vehicles on 57 roads, close down 74 roads and allow one-way traffic movement on 54 roads as part of the festival. (Express photo by Deepak Joshi)Mumbai Ganesh Chaturthi 2022: The Mumbai Traffic police would be imposing traffic restrictions across the city on the five days when the ‘Visarjan’ (immersion) procession of Lord Ganesh idols will take place as part of the 10-day Ganesh Chathurthi festival or Ganeshotsav.
The traffic curbs from noon till 6 am will be in place on September 1 (one-and-a-half-day Ganpati idol immersion), September 4 (fifth-day immersion), September 5 (Gauri Ganpati immersion), September 6 (seventh-day immersion), and September 9 (Anant Chaturdashi).
The police, if required, will impose parking restrictions at 114 places, ban goods vehicles on 57 roads, close down 74 roads and allow one-way traffic movement on 54 roads as part of the festival.
The details of the roads where restrictions are being imposed are mentioned under the ‘Traffic Notification’ section on the Mumbai Traffic police website.
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Apart from traffic restrictions, the police also cautioned ‘Ganpati mandals’ and devotees who will be part of the immersion procession of the idols to be more careful and alert while using a list of bridges that have become old and dangerous. A statement issued by the traffic police states, “All Ganesh devotees and ‘mandals’ are informed that the bridges of the Railways have become old and dangerous. Therefore, all devotees should take care.”
Weight on ‘dangerous bridges’ should not exceed 16 tonnes at a time
These bridges are Curry Road (overbridge), Arthur Road (overbridge), and Chinchpokli (rail overbridge) where the weight should not exceed16 tonnes at a time. Loudspeakers should not be used on the bridge and celebration must be done only after coming down the bridge and the procession must not stop on the bridge for a long time. Other rail-overbridges (RoBs) mentioned on the list are the Ghatkopar bridge, Byculla bridge, Marine lines bridge, Sandhurst road bridge, French bridge, Kennedy bridge, Falkland bridge, Belasis bridge, Mahalaxmi bridge, Prabhadevi bridge, and Dadar Tilak bridge.
Barricades erected
The traffic police have placed barricades on roads to segregate the crowd from vehicles to prevent any untoward incident. They have also set up five traffic police control rooms at important immersion spots – Girgaon Chowpatty (beach), Shivaji Park Chowpatty, Juhu Chowpatty, Malad Malwani T junction, and Ganesh Ghat, Powai. Further, watchtowers are being erected by traffic police at strategic places to ensure the smooth flow of traffic. They have also kept police cranes, BMC cranes, and high-capacity cranes to remove vehicles in case they break down creating a jam.