Public Works

Work on the IIT section of the Vikroli Jogeshwari link road has been on at full throttle the past few months. Any public infrastructure project in this region has taken thrice the sanctioned schedule time but right from the outset the Gandhinagar - Y Point stretch has been different.

The moment the Gurudwara was moved the intent to get stuff moving was apparent. And within 4 months, I am happy to say that I have travelled on the newly laid lanes on either side of the old road. (A guiding map can be seen here.) However the way the lanes are laid out is inefficient, atleast to a passerby. The new lanes are completely disjoint from the old ones and (in places) at a different elevation too. From Gandhinagar to YP, there is a huge chasm between lanes flowing in the same direction. As a result the roads have taken up a greater area than the area usable to traffic. However I am positive that the planners had an excellent reason to design it such.

But to be frank, I have felt (and been telling it to anyone who lent me an ear) that the traffic scene had shown a significant improvement since the same time last year even before the new lanes were opened. Frankly, the situation (beyond YP) on the downhill was never really too bad. It was the other lane that posed an uphill task. The reasons were clear to see:
1. Bad state of roads leading to slowing down of traffic.
2. Frequent breakdown of heavy vehicles that found it hard to negotiate the stall-start-move a couple of feet-stall routine on that stretch.
3. A signal at YP that was adhered too 30 secs. too late, coupled with
4. traffic streaming in from the Maddu Mess lane leading to general indiscipline.

In the last year, they managed to (howsoever temporarily) fix the roads.
But the turning point was the closing of traffic from inside IIT-thru YP-towards Andheri and in parallel preventing the traffic from maddu lane to move towards Gandhinagar. With 1 fixed and 3 & 4 eliminated, things in the past few months were genuinely good. If I experienced traffic on the uphill (near Suncity / Vodafone), I routinely bet with myself that a tempo or larger vehicle would have broken down right in the middle of the lane somewhere ahead - which it what it almost always used to be.

Point being that I am genuinely satisfied with the BMC, MMRDA on these fronts - [1. Improving existing road conditions; 2. Getting 2 new lanes up and running] - and would like to pause to applaud them.

However, in the last few weeks I noticed a really disturbing trend. Since vehicles exiting IIT through YP can't take an immediate right towards Andheri, they move a hundred feet left and take a U-turn in front of Phule Nagar (BEST bus stop). A passenger vehicle exiting IIT is likely to be in the left-most lane. Hence the U is neither quick nor clean. An Alto can cause significant disruption in both directions.
Similarly, the exit of the Maddu mess lane into the Gandhinagar direction is blocked using simple concrete bricks. Persistent nudging at them by Bikes and Autos creates a breach. All it takes is 4 bikers to wiggle through over and around the bricks, and before your eyes the break is big enough for a rickshaw to pass. Santros, Boleros and tempos follow within minutes.

Its really disheartening to see people (either campusities or visitors), and I can cite a few other examples of we behaving such. How hard is it to realise that there was a reason the police didn't want you to go towards Andheri after exiting IIT through YP. Ditto for those wanting to go from Powai market towards Gandhinagar?

How does the Police (given the weak dividers that fall apart in 15 nudges and the unruly traffic) maintain any flow on the road?! If at the end of the day people in Powai (both IIT campusities or those living near the Market) are experiencing incessant honking, layers of dust and smoke it is likely to be thanks to someone they know, rather than the government.

I will try and get some pics. or maps to make the point more visual. Also, the condition of the roads will only be tested in the monsoons. On that front the MMRDA isn't off the hook yet. There is a lot the government can do, but the locals too need to stand up and act sensibly.
In the mean time, this article compares Indian Urban Roads (in New Delhi) to London and Tokyo.