Traffic chaos on Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway: 15-km stretch worsens despite repairs, commuters face long delays

Following the 24-hour blockage on the path in June-end, the NHAI, at the insistence of Vadodara MP Hemang Joshi, had undertaken major repair works on the highway near Vadodara. However, since Tuesday, the stretch has again been a problem patch for smooth traffic movement.

Those travelling from cities between Ahmedabad to Mumbai and beyond as well as local commuters to GIDC units in Por and other establishments in Karjan, told this newspaper that the travel time has increased by at least an hour-and-a-half due to the unresolved traffic snarls.

Suresh Patel, who works in a private company located in Por GIDC, told this newspaper, “For two months now, I have been facing trouble while driving to my workplace. Only for a few days, the roads were cleared, otherwise, the usual distance of about 25 minutes from Vadodara city to Por has now become an hour-long drive as the traffic moves bumper to bumper at an extremely slow speed.”

On June 26, a traffic jam of over 24 hours due to two bottleneck points in Vadodara, had prompted MP Joshi to hold a meeting with the administration to urge NHAI to fill the potholes.

“The roads have been temporarily patched, which has given way at many places following heavy rainfall and also regular movement of traffic… The administration needs to find a solution as this highway was always the most convenient and accessible at good speed for vehicles. This issue has hampered inter-state traffic movement too,” Nilesh Singh, another daily commuter from Vadodara city to Karjan said.

Meanwhile, Vadodara Superintendent of Police Rohan Anand told this newspaper that police personnel have been deployed at the bottleneck points in Por and Bamangam, where the six-lane highway shrinks into a four-lane bridge of single lane on both sides.

Anand said, “We have deployed a unit of the district police, creating a chowky near the Por bridge… The bottlenecks that are located near the Por and Bamangam bridges are the major contributors to the serpentine queues. The vehicles are moving extremely slow as the work is also in progress in the area…”