Inching Through

quot;People poked fun at my decision to buy a flat in Borivli West. They associated the place with Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Kahaa...

quot;People poked fun at my decision to buy a flat in Borivli West. They associated the place with Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Kahaan picnic spot mein rehne ja rahe ho8217; they laughed,quot; says a Borivli resident, Yashwant Samant. But his critics were probably justified, then. A thick cover of trees, intersected by narrow, dusty roads, dotted with very few signs of human existence, several water bodies and a rich animal life, was what Borivli was all about.

But that was 29 years back. The western side of this northern suburb, including its remote interiors, has outgrown its status of a picnic spot ever since. It8217;s just that Borivli W is now intersected by concrete and tar roads packed to capacity with vehicles any time of the day, the water bodies have been turned into foundations for high rise buildings and animal life has been confined to loads of stray dogs. Well, in other words the suburb is now urbanised and, of course, much sought after. And its footing can be attributed to many a reason with ahouse if not a dream house being one of them.

Also, Borivli W is one of those areas of Mumbai that can8217;t complain of lack of civic amenities water supply is not much of a problem in most areas, transport to even remote areas like Shanti Ashram, Rishi Complex and Gorai is no problem either. Yet, what ails this suburb is regular traffic jams, bad roads and the all-pervasive hawkers menace.

THE STATION AREA:

Here, it8217;s a game of dodge ball. The only difference is that instead of a ball you have autorickshaws to dodge, thanks to lack of pavements. The vehicular and pedestrian traffic co-exist quite peacefully till Diamond Talkies on L T Road, Indraprastha Shopping Arcade on the southern end of S V Road and till Chandavarkar Road on the northern end. A walk beyond these points, toward Borivli station W, is a tough lesson in patience.

The narrow S V Road-L T Road junction is forever a tug-of-war between people trying to cross S V Road and vehicles blowing horns impatiently, trying to negotiatethe stretch as soon as possible. The situation is compounded by signal poles that don8217;t work. quot;The junction is a very busy one any time of the day. It urgently needs signal poles or at least a traffic policeman,quot; says Sanskriti Velankar, a working Borivli resident. quot;It is very irritating to cross this junction. Autorickshaws here seem to have their own rules.

They do everything short of getting on to people with their vehicles,quot; says an irate Borivli resident of 10 years, Supriya Prabhu, not realising that it8217;s a man-made problem no one but citizens themselves are to be blamed, for the sub-way that was constructed recently is used more as a home by beggars and seldom by pedestrians to bypass the chaos that happens overhead.

But traffic jams are not confined to this junction alone. At least two more junctions on L T Road lead to the clogging of traffic from or to Shanti Ashram, Charkop/Gorai, Dahisar and Kandivli. One such junction is the Factory Lane-L T Road-Maharashtra Nagar junction.

L TROAD-FACTORY LANE-MAHARASHTRA NAGAR JUNCTION

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This rather quiet junction started getting busier by the day after Kandivli8217;s Charkop developed into a bustling residential area. Bus routes connecting Charkop with Borivli, Dahisar and several eastern suburbs lead toward Charkop via Maharashtra Nagar and L T Road. The junction is so narrow that buses have to slow down considerably while taking a turn on L T Road.

If even two BEST or private buses happen to come one after the other, the entire L T Road on the eastern end and the Factory Lane traffic on the western side get jammed.

BABHAI-EKSAR JUNCTION

Yet another junction to get clogged frequently is the Babhai-Eksar Road junction. The traffic problem here can easily be dealt with. The only hitch is the slum at the end of Chandavarkar Road. Plans have been made and scrapped to move the slum that occupies Borivli8217;s prime space which is also crucial for a long-term solution to the area8217;s traffic jams. The knots of traffic ease out only at DonBosco High School where L T Road begins to get wider. Beyond Don Bosco, life is much easier for both motorists and pedestrians. Till L T Road turns to the bylanes of Charkop. But that8217;s a separate bundle of problems.