Digging of roads a nuisance to commuters at Vakola

A Fire Brigade, an emergency service provider held in the traffic jam at Vakola Bridge

Mumbai might aspire to be like Shanghai but all is not well in the Metropolitan City. The lifeline of the metro, its roads, is clogged due to the numerous spots that have been dug up. This results in traffic jams and adds to the commuters woes. Roads are dug up for various reasons. One such department excavating the roads is the storm water drains department (SWD). They are digging roads to replace age old pipelines, which is necessary. However, after their job is done they don’t bother to repair the roads properly. As a result of this, the roads in many places have sunk. Many parts of the road near Vakola and Kalina have been dug up resulting in total disarray of traffic and chaos amongst commuters. The signal at the Express Highway junction to Vakola Bridge junction has now become a choke up point. During the peak hour, you can be stuck here for hours.”

Especially, every evening many commuters are trapped in their vehicles for hours because of the work being carried out. Most people believe it is the lack on planning on the part of officials that is responsible. “I find myself late for work every evening because of the chaotic traffic jam that I encounter at the Vakola Bridge junction. The authorities should plan well in advance before undertaking any road work. Also once the work is done, the roads must go back to how they were. Leaving behind open ditches with red flags or twigs on them is unacceptable,” says an angered commuter.

In fact while speaking to Santacruz Patrika, a contractor who has taken up the digging of road for the extension of skywalk said, “We are hardly allowed to complete our work on schedule or at a stretch. Most of the time our work is either stopped by the BMC, MTNL, Reliance Infra or other telecom operators, prohibiting us to dig fearing their cables or pipes may get damaged. This inconvenience caused to the public cannot be taken care of.” Also an urban planner, thinks that most of the road works carried out are not well planned and executed properly. He says, “Heavy vehicles cannot run on all roads. When a road is being dug up, there should be a restriction on the kind of vehicles that should be allowed on the road. This can stop traffic from clogging up.”

Then there are other commuters who complain that the authorities just abandon the half worked on roads for months together. “The work at Vakola Bridge has been going on for more than eight months and has left a big ditch on the road. Besides, more than 50% of the road has been cornered by its equipments or has been fenced. This narrows the road leading to heavy traffic jam at the junction of Vakola Bridge. Nothing has been done about it and I don’t think anything will do about it soon. No one supervises the contractors, echoed an angered commuter.

However, it was in the evening that this reporter was held in the traffic jam for hours at Vakola Bridge. But the plight was that a Fire Brigade and Ambulance too were held at the junction for almost an hour. Despite continuously blowing the siren it went unheard as there was no way for an exit in the chaotic traffic jam. What will be the condition of a serious patient in an ambulance? It’s time the authorities work out a solution.

The bad condition of various roads in the city is because of the storm water drains department (SWD). The SWD is central agency and if they are digging up roads, it is the duty of this agency to make sure that the roads were as they were before this agency has passed on the repairing work to its own contractors. However, there is no one who supervises the work of these contractors. They just do their work and leave behind shoddy roads. Moreover, no department takes up the responsibility of maintaining the roads that they dug up. Most contractors who are hired to patch up the roads are not qualified to do so. The work that they do is just a show. We have taken up the issue with the authorities but no action has been taken. As a result of that the roads have sunk. It is the people who suffer in these circumstances. Replacing sewage pipelines is important but people should stop passing the buck. They should take responsibility and restore the roads to what they were before the work.