Is this traffic booth or fruit stall?

A traffic booth built by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) near Vashi railway station is being used by the fruit vendors to store their fruits.

Both the Cidco and traffic officials have failed to take action against those vendors for the trespassing.

The traffic booth which is adjacent to the auto stand, needs officials to monitor the vehicles from early morning till late night. However the traffic officials are hardly spotted there.

“Taking advantage of the situation, the vendors who sell fruits and juices near the station started using the premises. While they take rest inside the booth during the daytime, they store their fruits there at night,” said one Palash D, 55, a resident of Vashi.

“When commuters ask vendors not to trespass into the booth, they reply very arrogantly. Once, they even told us, ‘This is Vashi. Do whatever you want’,” he said.

“The traffic officials normally complain that they do not have The traffic booth near Vashi railway station has been taken over by vendors.

proper infrastructure for monitoring the vehicles at different parts of the city. But in Vashi, despite having a beautifully constructed booth, they are not using it. Had they deployed two officials near the station, no one would have dared to occupy the booth,” said Tapan Rai, 38, another resident of Vashi.

Rajesh Babshetty, senior police inspector of Vashi traffic unit said, “As soon as I learnt about

this menace I visited the booth last week and threw away all the fruits stored there. We also warned all the vendors against trespassing into it. However, the problem is one door of the booth is broken and hence we can’t lock it.”

“We have discussed this matter in a meeting on Wednesday. After repairing and painting the booth, we will keep our officials there to manage the traffic in that area,” he said.