Three oil spills in less than 48 hours have motorists across the city fuming over the traffic jams and diversions
Close on the heels of the hot bitumen-spill incident on the Western Express Highway at Jogeshwari, which inconvenienced commuters to a great extent, two more incidents of oil spills on arterial roads in the city yesterday has left motorists fuming.
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Utter chaos:u00a0A cement-laden tanker toppled over on the Western Express Highway at Jogeshwari in the wee hours of Thursday.u00a0Pic/Sameer Markande
Yesterday witnessed two oil-spill incidents — one at J J Flyover and the other on the eastern-end of the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) — and motorists were forced to take diversions in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Not a smooth ride: A traffic cop diverted vehicles after
The first oil spill was reported on the J J Flyover at around 9.15 am when a bitumen-laden tanker toppled onto its side and spilled its hot contents on the flyover and vehicles were forced to slow down as a result, but then southbound traffic on the flyover was diverted.
“We had to take the Mohammad Ali Road during peak hours in the morning and there was bumper-to-bumper traffic as the J J flyover was shut,” said Ranjeet Singh, motorist who travels to south Mumbai regularly.
Oil spilled on the J J Flyover. Traffic police personnel stationed at the spot said they reached the location immediately with sand to cover the oil spill.u00a0Pics/Bipin Kokate
Traffic police personnel stationed at the spot said they reached the location immediately with sand to cover the oil spill. “It took just over 30 minutes for us to clean the oil spill and reopen the route to traffic,” said S M Shejwal, police inspector, Pydhonie traffic police station.
The second oil spill occurred at 12.30 pm on the JVLR and affected vehicular movement proceeding towards WEH and onward to Kanjurmarg.
Motorists complained that traffic police personnel at the spot directed them to make a u-turn as a result of the spill that occurred near Gandhi Nagar junction.
“They were asking us to turn around. There was complete chaos as vehicles attempted to take a u-turn despite heavy vehicular movement on the opposite lane,” said a motorist travelling from Powai.
Confusion prevailed for around 45 minutes due to the volume of vehicular traffic.
The bitumen spill on the WEH near Jogeshwari is still a cause for concern.
“There is a need for the authorities to remove the excess asphalt spilled on the road and level it. Until then, there will be a bump that the motorists should watch out for while driving,” said transport expert Sudhir Badami.u00a0
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