Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Friday directed the administration to solve traffic issues and ensure a smoother commute. He was speaking at a meeting conducted in Mumbai to discuss road conditions and the traffic situation, especially on the Wada-Bhiwandi stretch and the Mumbai-Nashik Highway. Shinde also directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to fill all potholes in two days and avoid heavy traffic along the route.
Public Works Department Minister Ravindra Chavan, Road Development Minister Dada Bhuse, MLCs Satyajit Tambe and Niranjan Davkhare, Thane’s collector, police commissioner, and superintendent of police (rural), NHAI officials, and others were present at the high-level meeting chaired by the chief minister.
Shinde also set up a task force including members from the Thane Municipal Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) under the chairmanship of the Thane district collector. He asked the team to follow up constantly and ensure better road conditions, especially in the Thane and Kalyan-Dombivli areas, and along the Mumbai-Nashik highway.
The first meeting with the task force will be held on Saturday where detailed measures would be discussed to ease the traffic woes.
The traffic issue came under the spotlight when MLC Satyajeet Tambe drew Shinde’s attention to the matter and spoke about his ordeal when it took him over three hours for a 30-minute drive between Bhiwandi and Kalyan to reach Mumbai by road. Tambe had to ultimately take a local train in order to attend the legislative council session.
Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat, who is also a regular on the Mumbai-Nashik highway, also raised the issue in the monsoon assembly session and said that he had to walk two kilometres, on which minister Dada Bhuse had assured that potholes will be filled at the earliest and wardens would be deployed to man traffic on the highway.
Several leaders had raised the issue of the poor road conditions on the Mumbai-Nasik highway. Bhiwandi legislator Rais Shaikh had also raised the issue of several accidental deaths that happen every year on the route due to potholes.
The congestion on this road also affects the traffic in Thane and Mumbai. In the last week of July, for almost three consecutive days traffic jams between Kalyan and Bhiwandi affected vehicular movement in Thane city.
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