Thousands of motorists were stuck on the Mumbai and Pune lanes of the Sion-Panvel Highway in Navi Mumbai for hours after a dumper carrying rubble climbed on the divider of Vashi bridge on Friday morning.
The highway experienced a six-hour long traffic jam which was cleared only by afternoon.
At around 7.30am, the truck carrying the rubble climbed on the divider of Vashi flyover following which the front tyres of the dumper got damaged completely and the rubble had fallen on the road.
“The dumper had blocked both the lanes as it was perpendicular to the divider. The rubble had spread across the road blocking the lanes. The dumper could be moved with a crane and hence we had to first get another dumper, shift the rubble using JCB and then move the dumper with the help of a crane. We then got the rubble cleared from the road to avoid any further accident of motorbikes,” Purushottam Karad, deputy commissioner of police, traffic, said.
The traffic jam was reportedly right from Nerul to Vashi flyover.
“While the half portion of the dumper was on Mumbai lane, the other half was on Pune lane. We first cleared the Pune lane and then the Mumbai lane. By 12noon, both the lanes were cleared and the traffic started moving smoothly from 1pm. We would now also file a case against the dumper driver and have also written to Vashi RTO to take appropriate action after checking the papers and fitness of the dumper,” Bapurao Deshmukh, Vashi traffic police inspector, said.
A Seawoods resident who travels to Lower Parel daily for work, was late to work by an hour due to the traffic jam. “I left home at 9am and could cross Vashi toll naka only after an hour. On other days, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes. I had to postpone all my meetings for the day due to the traffic jam. The vehicles were moving at a snail’s pace while the officials were clearing the dumper from the road,” he said.
Jovita D’Souza, a Nerul resident, faced a similar problem. “While going to Reay Road in the morning, there was a delay of around 30 minutes and the same was the scenario while coming back. Nothing much had seemed to have happened. It looked like a dumper breakdown. But the traffic police were not giving directions to people as to where to go. This was causing more delay,” she added.