Roads blocked, traffic cops struggle to keep city moving

With fewer detours offered to drivers across the city, U Bhosle, a constable with the Kalbadevi traffic division, believes that the “whistling” in his job has significantly increased over the past couple of weeks.

“Though it seems that the traffic is never-ending, we are trying to keep all the vehicles on the move,” Bhosle added.

Gaurav Tanwar, a traffic constable attached with the Worli division said that though “all roads appear to be choked, the officers on duty are having a harder time than the drivers.”

Another constable with the same division went on to share his despair saying that “one of the perennial problems that traffic constables face is the problem to take toilet breaks. In this situation, there is still no relief as there are very breaks given the situation.”

Reminiscing the monsoons for traffic related reasons, police inspector Shriram Goregaonkar said that “this  sort of traffic happens a lot in and around the monsoon season in Mumbai, where all roads are dug up and the traffic is only moving at a snail’s pace.

According to Dr B K Upadhyay Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic), the traffic police had issued the BMC 400 permissions after they sought their approval to begin the work.

According to the traffic police, no-objection certificates were issued by them to the BMC depending on the work that they are required to fix on the roads.

Upadhyay said that the roads that required immediate attentions were prioritised.

“Those roads that had storm water drains underneath it had to be urgently attended to or else there is a possibility that the road could cave in. There are still 400 more permissions pending with us that would be issued.”

Attributing the growing chaos to the narrow streets of Mumbai and the plethora of cars, Upadhyay conceded that the traffic police is short staffed and overburdened to handle the current traffic scenario.

“The BMC has said that they would finish the work by April and until then officers will be deputised on the streets trying to organize and divert the traffic,” Upadhayay added.

rohit.alok@expressindia.com