Lockdown 4.0: No reprieve? No problem. Manic traffic on Monday

Heavy traffic congestion was reported on both, the Western and Eastern Express Highways (WEH) on Monday, as Mumbaikars stepped into Lockdown 4.0. Taking advantage of the fact that there was not much clarity on the new rules and relaxations in the latest lockdown extension, scores of vehicles, both two- and four-wheelers, thronged the streets as if it were any other pre-lockdown day, leading to snarls and delays of at least 20 minutes.

There was an increase in the number of vehicles on the WEH, EEH and the SionPanvel highway on Monday morning. A traffic official said congestion was reported in parts of Andheri, Goregaon, Malad and Kurla, while in some areas, traffic jams were caused by police barricades. However, police sources claimed that private vehicles on roads belonged to essential service providers, which eventually led to traffic snarls on Monday.

In the midst of this chaos, social media users immediately took to the internet to vent their ire over the sorry state of the city traffic, questioning whether the lockdown was over in Mumbai. Twitter-user Chirag

Bhatt shared a video of the congestion near Jogeshwari (E) on WEH and questioned, "Mumbai back to normal?", while another asked, "Lockdown over in Mumbai?" as he shared a video of a heavily congested EEH.

After traffic snarls were reported all over the city, on Monday evening, Mumbai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh tweeted, "Gentle Reminder Mumbaikars, Mumbai being a RED ZONE, is yet to see any relaxations from earlier rules, under Lockdown 4.0 Vehicles travelling without valid permission or for nonemergency, DAY or NIGHT,will be impounded & driver to face strict action. It’s for your safety first."