Commuters trapped in traffic snarls

Mumbai: The key Western Express Highway on the stretch leading to the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) witnessed long traffic snarls during the morning peak hour on Friday on account of BJP’s 38th foundation day rally though the authorities deployed 4,000 policemen on traffic duties in the area.

The 20-minute commute between Andheri and Bandra turned out to be a 75-minute ordeal for many commuters.

Some commuters also lashed out on social networking websites, blaming the BJP for the traffic woes. Many people, including Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan took to the social media to send out messages of traffic jams and many expressed anger.

Mumbai police had tweeted traffic advisory on its official Twitter handle alerting the commuters to the probable traffic congestion on roads leading to the Eastern Express Highway and the Western Express Highway towards BKC.

Amitesh Kumar, joint commissioner of police (traffic), said, “There were a few traffic snarls, but they were eventually brought under control. Traffic policemen were deployed heavily to avoid any misunderstanding that can lead to chaos.”

A traffic police official said on the condition of anonymity, “We have caught a few men for travelling triple seat on motor cycles, and fined them. The data of how many such cases were reported will be gathered and a report made in two-three days.”

Mr Bachchan tweeted: A 30 min drive . takes 5 hours . ! thats the Phantom movie camera moving at 500 frames per second .Film City to JVPD Scheme, Juhu .. normal camera moves at 24 frames (sic).”

One of the commuters, Riya Gethani (27), a mechanical engineer, who works in BKC said, “Today I was super late to the office as I reached 11.30 am for a 10 am reporting time. I was lucky that my bosses were considerate, and allowed me to work without marking me late.”

Some others who lashed out on Twitter posted the following tweets: Mamata Tibrewala said: “Don’t understand the reason to cause huge #traffic jams in an already congested #mumbai #bkc. Address people on tv or on a Sunday.”

The buses of routes to and from the MMRDA grounds were packed with the office-goers and BJP supporters.

The stretch ahead of the family court up to the event venue was jammed up. The private buses, which ferried the volunteers were parked on the street, adding to the woes. “The route is never jammed, today because of the rally there is too much traffic,” said Ravinder Naik, a commuter.