LBS RESIDENTS: SLOW METRO WORK CAUSING INCONVENIENCE

BLOCKING OF TRAFFIC FLOW IRRITATES CITIZENS Major arterial LBS road in eastern suburbs of Mumbai facing major traffic issues

To ply a vehicle on the LBS (Lal Bahadur Shastri), a major arterial road in the eastern suburbs of Mumbai on the stretch of Bhandup Signal up to Gandhinahar Junction has become a nightmare for motorists. Traffic throughout the day is taking a toll on their health apart from wastage of time and energy says residents living here.

Life has changed after metro 4 (Wadala to Kasarvadavli in Thane) work started. The barricades including 9-metre-wide were put up two years ago. The median is covered and there is little space left on the carriage road. The slow civil construction is adding to the woes, claimed Shirish Daudkhane, a resident of Mahindra Splendour CHS, adjoining the LBS Road.

Speaking to the FPJ, he said a beeline of vehicles is seen during morning and evening peak hours. “Most of the time I listen ambulance chiming alarm but the traffic here is too heavy that no one can help even if they wish so. There is no way to give a way to the ambulance or fire engine.

What will happen during emergency I wonder?” exclaimed Daudkhane?

He asserted of total four year contract period usually for any civil work which involves pilling, pier construction work two years of time is given. While next two years time is given for station construction work which includes station furniture, track laying etc. However, the contractor has lapsed his deadline since he is still carrying out the pilling and pier construction work. Moreover, when asked the metro general consultant they cite due to underground utility lines the work has been delayed. Besides, metro barricading, potholes ridden roads, poor footpath has made the situation worse, Daudkhane added, who works as a consultant in oil-gas industry.

Another resident named Snehal Basrur, a homemaker and resident of Great Eastern Garden located adjoining the LBS expressed disappointed over MMRDA’s metro 4 construction work at her place. Raising questions she said is this how the city is upgrading? "There is zero co-ordination between corporation, MMRDA and the contractor. Whenever the contractors are asked why the metro work is progressing so slowly they say there are waterpipelines, so the work has delayed as they are yet to get permission from BMC. Why can’t the officials of different agencies can sit together and address the issue? Moreover, the metro consultant claims while carrying out soil testing they got to know about the underground utilities. Is this how they work? Before putting barricades why don’t they get all the permissions first and then start the work. The LBS is a trunk road but today it takes hours to reach from one point to another,” she stated.

Caroline a Netherlands citizen living in the same building too expressed her anguish over daily traffic chaos. “The struggle starts from the building gate itself. Due to the beeline of vehicles on the road to take out vehicles from our building premises take a lot of time.”

Interestingly to resolve the daily traffic issue apart from other civic amenities all residents have come together and formed an Advance Locality Management (ALM) which is named as Bhandup Kanjur Clean ALM. Initially there were only six members in the ALM but due to rising inconvenience several other residents too joined the group to raise their voice.