A monsoon report card for traffic cops

With the downpours refusing to cease, Team MiD DAY inspects the city's major traffic junctions

A monsoon report card for traffic cops

With the downpours refusing to cease, Team MiD DAY inspects the city's major traffic junctions

Incessant rains, roads pockmarked with potholes, and never-ending Mumbai traffic sounds like a perfect recipe for disaster, doesn't it?

Keeping this in mind, Team MiD DAY decided to inspect some of the major traffic junctions in the city to check if the city's traffic police are armed and ready to deal with the monsoon traffic debacle.

While hotspots like the Kalanagar junction, Mahim Church junction, and Haji Ali junction appeared to be adequately manned by traffic cops, an illegal taxi queue was found wreaking havoc with traffic at Worli Naka.

All's well at Haji Ali Junction
All the traffic signals at this junction were found to be inu00a0 working order, along with the Electronic Messaging Board installed in the area.

The situation at the Haji Ali junction was heartening, with a number of constables as well as senior police officials regulating traffic to ensure its smooth flow.

Traffic cops hard at work at Kalanagar Junction
This stretch is always packed with vehicles, used, as it is, by motorists moving from the western suburbs towards BKC, the Eastern Express Highway, Sion and Dharavi.

Vehicles moving towards CST via Dr Ambedkar Road have to take a left from Kalanagar junction to use the Sion Bandra Link Road.

After crossing the busy junction, vehicles have to apply their brakes again at the BKC junction signal, a mere 200-250 metres away. The situation is exacerbated in the evenings.

When team MiD DAY inspected this junction, four traffic police constables could be seen hard at work, regulating traffic. Close at hand was a towing van, ready to pull away any vehicle adding to theu00a0 mayhem.

Potholes play spoilsport at Mahim Church Junction
The southbound traffic moving from Bandra to Mahim was making slow progress, primarily owing to the presence of a large pothole near the traffic signal. There were three police constables present at the spot, and a towing van was making the rounds of the area.

A traffic police official said, requesting anonymity, that traffic snarls in the area were caused mainly by the potholes. He added that the number of constables at the junction was increased during peak hours. pics/atul kamble

A lone constable struggles at Mahalaxmi railway station junction
The situation was dismal at the Keshav Rao Khadye Marg, a stone's throw from Haji Ali enroute to Mahalaxmi railway station.

Vehicles in the entire stretch from the racecourse to Mahalaxmi railway station seemed to be stuck in a prolonged traffic jam. Not a single traffic constable was present to control the mayhem, barring one near the Mahalaxmi station.

At Worli naka, taxi queues play truant
The Worli Naka is one of the busiest junctions in Mumbai, as motorists coming in from the western suburbs, Dadar via Dr Annie Besant Road, Lower Parel, Byculla via Dr Senapati Bapat Marg and Dr E Moses Marg, have to pass through the junction on their way towards Haji Ali.

In spite of the presence of a traffic police chowky at the junction, team MiD DAY found only a single traffic constable manning traffic at the busy crossroads.

Motorists coming in from Lower Parel, Dadar and Mahalaxmi via the Dr E Moses Marg were stuck in traffic, unable to move towards the left and proceed towards Haji Ali or Mahalaxmi, owing to the presence of a long taxi queue near the petrol pump, along with an LPG filling station adjacent to it.
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A pedestrian from the BDD chawl opined that the heavy traffic congestion in the area was caused by the queue of unlawfully parked taxis, and the situation could be salvaged only if the traffic police started towing away vehicles from the area.

Speaking to MiD DAY, Inspector BS Kore said, "Since it is the monsoon, we have increased the number of traffic police constables at the Worli Naka, especially during peak hours. We have also been towing away vehicles parked at the no-parking zones."