Thane: Infra work, poor planning jam Ghodbunder Road for up to 4 hours

THANE: Thousands of motorists from Thane were left stranded for up to four hours on Thursday after Ghodbunder Road was struck by traffic snarls for the third consecutive day owing to the authorities’ poor planning for infrastructure work and failure to anticipate traffic volume. Scores of freight vehicles vied for space with motorists in the morning hours, clogging arterial and internal roads.
The snarls once again exposed the municipality, which has allowed multi-storeyed towers at either end of the highway while giving local traffic no alternative route.

The authorities shifted the blame for the day’s mess. Thane police said it was caused by a delay by MMRDA contractors in installing girders for Metro routes at Kasarwadavli and Kapurbawdi. MMRDA confirmed the delay but said traffic police delayed the nod for the girder launch. An apparent miscalculation about the volume of vehicles that could enter the city and failure to regulate them at the fringes also led to the chaos. This was compounded by blatant lane indiscipline by some motorists, which brought the entire peak hour traffic on the route to a grinding halt.
“We had regulated traffic on Thane city’s fringes during the girder launch. But, as the work, which was scheduled to be completed by 5am, got delayed, the movement of outbound vehicles ended up overlapping with the peak morning city traffic. Further, a few motorists ended up taking entry in opposite lanes, which aggravated the situation,” said a traffic police official.
The chaos was so heightened that even clearing a 1km stretch took about 60 minutes, said Pooja Maheldar, a resident of Hiranandani Estate. Many students on school buses were stuck at various locations. Anand Nagar’s Velan Kannan said it took him two-and-a-half hours to cover 8km to get to his office in Khopat.
Anubha Sahai from Hiranandani Estate said a few residents plan to approach Thane police and civic chiefs and CM Eknath Shinde, who hails from Thane, to seek a permanent resolution to the issue of recurrent jams. Former MP Rajan Vichare from Sena (UBT) said they asked the Thane police chief to regulate the movement of heavy trucks during peak hours.
TOI reached out Thane civic chief Saurabh Rao but there was no response.