Double the vehicles on roads after unlocking
MUMBAI: The number of vehicles on Mumbai’s roads has more than doubled after restrictions on travel were eased by the Maharashtra government on June 1, following the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the data collected by the Mumbai traffic police, since Monday, around 24,000-25,000 vehicles have been crossing the two toll junctions at Dahisar and Mulund (entry and exit points of Mumbai) everyday, as compared to 10,000 to 12,000 vehicles during the partial lockdown in April and May.
Traffic police officers said there were days during the lockdown when they witnessed traffic congestion as motorists were confused about the restrictions on travelling without a valid reason or emergency.
“We have now increased bandobast and posted traffic constables at all the points in Mumbai to see to it that traffic jams do not occur. However, due to heavy rainfall and waterlogging, many low-lying parts of the city experienced slow-moving traffic,” said a traffic police officer. A study by Tomtom, that analyses traffic data and provides real time traffic management data of 416 cities worldwide, showed that this year, during the lockdown months of March, April and May, traffic congestion in Mumbai was the lowest at 8% on the 16th and 17th weeks (April 19-25 and April 26-30). This means that it took 8% more travel time to reach their destinations.
The graph from March to June, as revealed by Tomtom, pointed out that in the 9th week (March 1-7), the traffic congestion was at 32% percent – the highest this year – in Mumbai which came down in the 16th and 17th weeks and again rose to 20% in the 22nd week.
“In January 2020 (pre-lockdown), the congestion level was 64% in Mumbai. The congestion levels measured in March, April and May 2021 were 29%, 14% and 11%, respectively – which is a tremendous reduction in the congestion levels owing to the state lockdown,” said Parag Bedarkar, manager, enterprise sales, Tomtom.
In 2020, when a complete lockdown was announced in
Mumbai, the 10th week (March 2-8) showed the congestion level at 45%, but it dropped to 0% on week 22 (May 25-31), which meant that an emergency worker could reach one point to another in time in the city. Mumbai was among the three cities of India that feature in the top 10 most-congested cities in the world, as per Tomtom Traffic Index 2020. With 53% of traffic congestion in Januarydecember 2020, Mumbai ranked second in the world after Moscow, which had 54% traffic congestion. The four cities from India which featured in Tomtom list, which analysis real-time traffic to help drivers and city planners to manage traffic, are Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru.
The other global cities that had featured in the top 10 include Manila (Philippines), Bogota (Colombia), Moscow (Russia), Lima (Peru), Istanbul (Turkey) and Jakarta (Indonesia).
In 2019, Mumbai was the fourth-congested city with 65% congestion and in 2018, it ranked number two.
Due to heavy rainfall and waterlogging, many low-lying parts of the city experienced slowmoving traffic. TRAFFIC POLICE OFFICER