The Ambedkar Bhavan demolition protest rally Tuesday severely disrupted traffic already hit by a fatal accident on the Eastern Freeway and heavy rainfall. Several diversions had to be made across the central and southern sections of the city. Bandra resident Kashvi Gidwani, who got into a taxi at S V Road, took 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach Colaba. “Despite the Sea link, the commute was difficult. After Worli, the traffic was crawling,” she said, Entrepreneur Haren Paul Rao (23) was delayed for his meeting in Fort by two hours despite starting early. “I started from Powai at 10.30 am and reached Fort only by 2.35 pm. I had to stop at Dadar to pick up some documents, so could not take the freeway. Traffic at Lalbaug was being rerouted at aleast four different points. I went under JJ flyover. I have never witnessed such traffic towards south Mumbai,” said Rao. For motorists travelling from the eastern suburbs, there were four main diversions at Sion’s Ahuja Bridge, Five Gardens junction, Dadar TT and Bhoiwada. [related-post] Watch Video: What's making news The rally affected traffic on the nortbound stretch of the JJ flyover severely, with stuck vehicles extending all the way to Churchagate. Saat Rasta roads leading to JJ Flyover were closed and diversions around CST were being made from 10 am. With traffic being re-routed to the western side of the island city, Worli Naka, Mahalaxmi and Haji Ali junctions were heavily choked. Signals between Byculla and JJ bridge were put on flasher mode to facilitate traffic. With a fatal collision between two vehicles on the Eastern Freeway, traffic was disturbed for nearly three hours with vehicular movement to south Mumbai affected. Yasmin Shaikh, who works in Parel, reached office late because of the pile-up on the freeway. “The commute usually takes 70 minutes, but today I spent more than two hours ,” she said. In the western suburbs, after a rainfall of 55 mm, vehicles were moving slow on SV Road in the peak morning and evening hours. By Tuesday evening, the Babulnath bottleneck still had traffic moving slow and the Anni Beasant road was severely affected. Parel and Hindmata too were highly congested.
