Haji Ali diversions: headache for some,good for others

The Traffic Police have blocked the route from Peddar Road towards Mahalaxmi which means drivers have to go towards Worli and then take a U-turn at the signal near Lala Lajpatrai College and then come back again towards Haji Ali from where they can take a left turn and proceed towards Mahalaxmi.

Similarly,motorists coming from Mahalaxmi have to turn left towards the Sobo Mall (earlier known as Crossroads) and then take a U-turn outside the mall before proceeding towards Peddar Road.

While the Traffic Police department maintains that the diversions have cleared the congestion at the junction,many motorists feel otherwise.

Taxi driver Subhash Yadav says the diversions have not served any purpose.

“The bottleneck which used to be created at the junction earlier has now shifted to the Crossroads mall area where motorists coming from Mahalaxmi have to go in order to proceed towards Peddar Road.”

More worrying perhaps is the route that vehicles from Pedder Road have to take to reach Mahalaxmi. At the Lala Lajpatrai College signal the situation during non-peak hours is bad. “Traffic from the Worli side comes at top speed often jumping the signal there at night. Vehicles taking the U-turn are always in danger of being hit by these speeding cars,” says a motorcyclist.

However not everybody is complaining.

Karamchand Singh,a taxi driver who has been plying his taxi near the junction for many years says,“The glitch is that while coming from Peddar Road towards Mahalaxmi we have to go all the way to the college to execute a U-turn and then head back to the junction for the left turn which seems like a roundabout way for doing something. But I suppose that this is better than being stuck at the junction for a long period of time.”

“The diversions have at least ensured that the congestion at Haji Ali is cleared. Earlier traffic would get stuck for a long time at one junction and create chaos. However,now with the diversions,the delay has minimised to an extent,” says a bus conductor who runs his vehicle from Worli towards Nariman Point via Peddar Road.

The diversions have been in place since a couple of weeks but traffic police officials have still not declared whether the diversions would be made permanent.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sanjay Barve just says,“The diversions have definitely cleared the chaotic congestion at Haji Ali. Earlier,the traffic would get stuck there for about 15-20 minutes. However,after the diversions,the situation has improved and the department has received positive response to the diversions.”

More trouble on Peddar Road
A Ieakage in a service pipeline that supplies water to individual buildings from the main pipeline was detected on Sunday morning on Peddar Road. The leakage was detected when the BMC was repairing old sewerage pipelines on a portion of the road under its sewerage replacement project that it undertook in May this year. Deputy municipal commissioner (special engineering) Pramod Charankar said,”The repair work is under way and should be completed within a day’s time.”