Mumbai: At night, BEST drivers face another kind of jam

School buses, digging work make it tough to negotiate SoBo lanes

BEST passengers have been inconvenienced as school buses and utility-related digging are obstructing paths that are being used for midnight diversions due to Mumbai Metro 3 Aqua Line work. Commuters complained that regular-sized BEST buses are getting stuck in narrow SoBo lanes.

Tunnelling has been completed for Aqua Line 3, the city’s first underground line, but back-filling work is yet to be completed. In the process, work has been progressing on the concretisation of the Dr DN Road and is in its final stage.

Sources said the concretisation work had come to a standstill due to the flow of traffic and as per the opinion of the appointed engineer, space was required to station a boom placer, ready mixer and other machinery at the work site. Due to this, the Metro team obtained the permission of the traffic police to shut down southbound traffic between 12 midnight and 6 am from April 5 till further notice. The traffic police issued a multi-language notification and press notes to this effect.

The traffic police also managed to work out diversions via internal roads and via ENT Hospital up to Flora Fountain, which was communicated to the BEST undertaking and buses have been following this route. However regular-sized buses are getting stuck due to the presence of school buses and digging on internal roads.

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“The road from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Colaba via Handloom House is closed at midnight due to Metro work. As a result, vehicles have to take a right turn opposite Handloom House, then a left turn near Godrej, past Young Ladies School and a right turn near ENT hospital to get out on the main road towards Flora Fountain. However, there are school buses blocking the route near ENT hospital, along with some digging of the road, making it impossible for regular-sized BEST buses to turn. This could be a recipe for disaster as heavy vehicles ply at full speed on this road during the night,” said a commuter, Avinash K.

While BMC A ward officials said they will work out a solution to fix the internal roads faster as there is a rush to complete all works before the monsoon, traffic police officers said they will monitor the movement of vehicles and take action against parking violators.

“Ideally, any diversion via school road should have been done after schools are closed for vacation so that there are no buses. When schools are closed, school buses could be sent somewhere like the BEST depot where they have a parking facility. Road work is important,” Anil Garg, president of the School Bus Owners’ Association (SBOA), Maharashtra.

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