Even as work on a flyover to ease traffic at Thakurli remains in limbo, commuters endure regular delays of up to 30 minutes at Dombivli station
Heavy traffic at Thakurli phatak delays trains on Central line by over 20 mins
Heavy traffic at the Thakurli level crossing gate last evening during peak hours
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Thakurli level crossing gate, which has been blamed for delaying trains along the Central Railway route on countless occasions, caused all train movement to come to a halt recently, for almost 20 minutes.
Although level crossing gates are supposed to remain open for only 5 minutes, heavy traffic in the area ensures that traffic cops keep them open for over 15 minutes at Thakurli junction. It delays multiple trains that ply on that route, especially during peak hours, between 5 pm and 8 pm.
On Tuesday evening, all trains from and to CST, which crossed the Thakurli level crossing gate remained paralysed for over 20 minutes because traffic cops couldn’t stop the heavy traffic flow at the junction around 6.30 pm. It led to huge commotion as commuters had to wait for over 20 minutes, from 6.37 pm to 7 pm, at Dombivli station.
On being questioned, an RPF official said, “Both the east and west ends of the phatak (the level crossing) are manned by a traffic constable. It was decided at a recent meeting between railway authorities to not allow heavy vehicles to use this route during peak hours, but there’s huge traffic on that stretch after 5.30 pm, which messes up the train schedule. We are helpless as that gate is beyond our jurisdiction.”
Incidentally, a local MLA, Ravindra Chavan had recently initiated work on a flyover bridge (FOB) at Thakurli to check the traffic chaos and train delays, but there has been no progress on that construction since then. Pramod Kulkarni, city civil engineer at Kalyan Dombivli Muncipal Corporation (KDMC), said, “Work on a new water pipeline is on near the proposed FOB site. As soon as it is done, we will start work on the FOB and we aim to finish the construction by May 2017. Also, elevated bridges are coming up near Mhasoba Nagar, which will help reduce traffic near Thakurli level crossing.”
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