MUMBAI: Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde had a pressing engagement on Friday. Braving a cratered stretch of National Highway-48 (NH-48) in Thane, Shinde’s convoy pulled up at the Ghodbunder ghat section, where hurried repairs are attempting to salvage his image – and prevent further loss of life.
The horribly pockmarked 120-km stretch between Mira Road and Palghar has turned into a death trap, even though it was concretised only recently. In an unprecedented move, heavy vehicles have been banned for three days, to allow emergency repairs.
Shinde, elected from Kopri-Pachpakhadi constituency in Thane and also the district’s guardian minister, has made road repairs his calling card, promising a “pothole-free Mumbai” under his ambitious road concretisation plan. On Friday, he inspected the repairs at Ghodbunder gaht, hoping they will hold this time around.
NH-48 is a major artery in the country’s road network, linking Delhi to Chennai and passing through seven states, including Maharashtra. A section of this highway, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, not only connects two major cities, it also passes through the Boisar-Tarapur industrial belt, one of the largest industrial areas in the state.
Despite its significance, and the sheer volume of traffic it carries, this six-lane highway is a potholed nightmare. In 2003, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) spent ₹600 crore to pave the road with white topping, after the Mira Road-Palghar stretch witnessed 182 accidents, resulting in 106 deaths and 64 serious injuries.
Still, the highway refused to hold. The freshly laid concrete developed potholes again, and, in June, 10,000 blocks, each measuring 4sq ft, were embedded in the highway, like a gigantic jigsaw, during emergency repairs. But even that did not really help.
On Thursday, local traffic authorities announced a temporary – and unprecedented – ban on heavy vehicles on Ghodbunder Road, specifically at the Gaimukh Ghat section, so that urgent repairs could be carried out. The ban is in force from August 8 to 10 and involves traffic diversions.
If it’s not the potholes, the repairs to the highway have caused traffic gridlock that lasts four to five hours. Heavy vehicles are being diverted via the Bhiwandi bypass and Vajreshwari road but truck and trailer drivers are refusing to take these roads as they too are in pitiable condition.
“Never been worse”
“The condition of the NH-48 and Ghodbunder has never been worse,” says Vasai resident Rahul Vartak, 40, who owns a factory in Vasai and another in Navi Mumbai. Commuting between the two involves driving through Thane, via the battered Ghodbunder Road. “I was stuck in traffic from Chinchoti junction to Fountain Hotel on Friday owing to the repair work,” says Vartak, who took four hours to complete what is usually a 60-minute drive from Vasai to Thane. “It’s just ridiculous!” he remarks.
Mehul Parekh, 38, who owns a chemicals trading firm called MP Aromas in Sativali, in Vasai East, travels by road to his factory from Borivali, every day. On Friday, he ditched his car and took the train as he was alerted by fellow travellers on his WhatsApp group to the chaos and gridlock on the highway.
“Commuting on the NH-48 these days is a nightmare. There’s no saying when we’ll get stuck in traffic or when we’ll get home at the end of the day,” says Parekh. He says the extent of neglect is shocking, considering the highway connects two major cities, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
“Our relatives have stopped visiting us and weddings have also been cancelled due to the traffic jams,” says Sushant Patil, who lives between Bhayander and Mira Road. “School children from Thane have been late for exams because of delays on the roads.”
Mismatched concrete slabs
The mismatch and gaps between concrete slabs have added to traffic snarls as heavy vehicles sometimes occupy all six lanes, taking several minutes to cross these gaps. The stretch from Manor in Palghar to the Virar toll plaza is another dreaded stretch for motorists, due to endless traffic jams and blocked service roads. The opening of the road towards the Bhiwandi bypass has added to the chaos as vehicles are backed up from the Bhiwandi bypass all the way to Vasai
The condition of the road between Fountain Hotel (where Ghodbunder Road meets the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway) and Gaimukh, especially from Kaju Pada to Chena village along Ghodbunder Road, has worsened due to the rains. As a result, the gridlock extends from the Ahmedabad highway right up to the Bhiwandi bypass.
Commuters report frequent congestion and instances of motorists driving against the traffic flow, further blocking the Borivali-bound lanes and causing jams stretching up to 3 km towards Thane.
Worse, as part of the repair work strategy, the number of lanes currently open to traffic along the Ghodbunder ghat section has been halved, to allow work to be carried out in phases. Traffic bottlenecks here are so bad that commuters have been turning around through gaps in the median and driving in the wrong direction.
Dipendra Singh Rathod, manager (technical), NHAI, blames accidents and motorists for the traffic problems along the Mira Road-Palghar stretch. He pointed to a tanker catching fire near Fountain Hotel on August 2, and motorists driving in the opposite direction due the repairs on Ghodbunder Road.
Asked about the potholes that have developed on the newly concretised surface of the highway, Rathod says, “We have blacklisted the contractor who had done the concretisation. As for repair work, we have started it using mastic asphalt, which takes just an hour to dry. This work is in full swing, with coordination of all the agencies.”
Clock runs out on Chhaya
Chhaya Purab, 49, a resident of Madhukar Nagar in Saphale, Palghar, would have probably been alive had it not been for a four-hour traffic jam on the NH-48. “We were taking her to Hinduja Hospital in Mahim but didn’t make it beyond Mira Road,” said her husband, Kaushik, 50.
Chhaya was supervising road cleaning work near her home on July 31, when a tree fell on her, fracturing her ribs, shoulder and skull. Since there was no trauma centre in Palghar, she was being taken to Hinduja Hospital in Mahim for advanced care.
The ambulance left Saphale at 3pm. “The estimated time to reach the hospital in Mahim was about two and a half hours. However, the ambulance was stuck near Manor and reached Virar around 6.00pm. We reached Mira Road at 7.00pm and I was shocked at the gridlock on both carriageways. People were driving on the wrong side of the road, as they were unable to move on the south-bound carriageway,” recalled Kaushik.
The doctors in Palghar said the anesthesia they had administered Chhaya would wear off in four hours – a little longer than it should have taken to reach Hinduja Hospital. But the ambulance had barely reached Virar when Chhaya started screaming in pain.
“I called my son so that she could feel better but she begged me not to. I had to watch her suffer for four hours,” said Kaushik, who used to work in a multi-national company but decided to retire from city life and live in a village with Chhaya. Since her condition was rapidly worsening, they decided to drive to Orbit Hospital in Mira Road, where doctors declared Chhaya dead before admission.
The doctors told Kaushik she could have been saved had she arrived at the hospital just half an hour earlier. Chhaya’s was a life lost to a highway that is itself a victim – of chronic neglect and administrative apathy.