Mumbai: Commuters in the western suburbs had a hard time getting to work on Friday morning after the heavy overnight downpour in different areas caused waterlogging, leading to traffic jams.
Waterlogging in areas around Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), and Andheri and Malad subways had a cascading effect on the traffic on the Western Express Highway.
Deepak Toraskar, the traffic police in-charge of Jogeshwari, said, “Traffic flow is always heavy in the morning, but due to the waterlogging in certain areas, the situation became worse. We will file a report on the condition and forward it to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.”
“It took me an hour to travel a kilometre, and there was not one policeman in sight. What worries me is that this was the first spell of rain,” said Borivali resident Uttam More, who was on his way to work at Bandra.
Aniruddha Bhalla, on his way to Powai via JVLR, said, “Unfortunately, the traffic condition may further deteriorate as a sizeable chunk of the road network has been cordoned off for Metro construction. Waterlogging near the SEEPZ Metro construction site caused me a delay of three hours.”
Tempo overturns
Adding to the woes of the commuters, a poultry van overturned at Kherawadi flyover, Bandra (East). “The tempo toppled around 8 a.m., and because of the resultant traffic congestion, we were unable to get the crane to the location early. The tempo was taken away by 10:30 a.m., and then the traffic returned to normal,” Satish Gaikwad, traffic police inspector of BKC Division, said.
“I had to pay the cab three times of what I usually pay,” said Bhumika Jain, who was travelling from Bandra (East) around 9 a.m.
BEST buses were heavily crowded as drivers of black-and-yellow taxis and autorickshaws refused fares. App-based cab aggregators were charging surge prices.
