How Safe are the roads of MMR?

Safety of the roads seem to hinder every motorist of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane along with 6 other municipal cooperation are a part of the MMR area with quite a few fatalities off late. Most of the fatalities are due to bad road conditions and a few due to negligence of drivers.

On 28th September 2022 Sejal Ambetkar, a 21year old rider from the Navi Mumbai vicinity lost her life due to negligence of heavy vehicles on the Panvel-Uran Road. The deceased was travelling to her classes when the fatal mishap took place at gavanfata. Sejal seemed to be a professional rider based on her social media post posts related to her riding journeys. Moreover, the passers stated the fault was of the heavy vehicle and these vehicles have been a worry for many motorists on the Panvel-Uran road.

The police shall investigate the issue and accordingly register a case. However, there have been several complaints and requests by local and the Marathi press community to the civic and police officials regarding the unofficial Container Yards.

On the other hand, a police official was manhandled for issuing a challan. This incident took place in Andheri East, Mumbai wherein a motorist from Goregaon was issued a challan for not wearing a helmet. This instigated the motorist and resulted in constable VT Sanjeev with a ruptured eardrum.

Similarly, a lawyer from Virar was arrested for running over his scooter on a woman traffic constable as the vehicle was impounded by the Nalasopara police.

These incidents does question the law and order situation in Maharashtra!

Moreover, the roads across MMR are surrounded by potholes. Which further raises the risk of fatalities. Many social activists have been tweeting and being vocal about the road conditions and the lives lost due to road mishaps. However, the civic officials and the state government seem to have turned a blind eye. Further, the heavy vehicles too are raising an alarm with their negligence and nonadherence to the law and order.

The non-adherence of lane discipline at the Thane – Mulund Toll Naka on the eastern express highway is at peak. Wherein the heavy vehicles block all the toll booth lanes creating a long queue. This also results in huge traffic that surpasses the Mulund Flyover.  A simple 15mins distance can turn into hour an half just to cross the toll. Moreover, the Anand Nagar bridge being still under construction right after the toll makes it further more bottleneck. Currently, its a 2 lane flyover which is blocked by heavy vehicles round the clock. Though the law says heavy vehicles have to be on the left lane. However, across MMR one will find the heavy vehicles on the right lane.

The government will have to impose strict adherence to the Law and Order to reduce the road fatalists.

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