Infra projects across city eat up road space, cause snarls

THANE: Traffic jams across the city has become the order of the day. Due to several ongoing infrastructural projects, vehicular movement has been affected as the road space has narrowed down.
Several civic works are been carried on at several roads in the city, including MG road, LBS road, etc, which have made the lanes very narrow for easy movement of vehicles.The situation is no better at station road and B-cabin. Commuters travelling to these areas have complained of inconvenience not only because of inadequate space, but also due to mismanagement by authorities. “There are no sign boards stating that work is being carried out. We have almost missed ramming into railings erected at Naupada. Presence of cops at such chronic areas wold be of great help,” said Sameer Joshi, a commuter.
Not only internal roads even arterial roads like Pokhran road has been witnessing traffic jams, especially during peak hours. Nitin company junction is another bottleneck area.
According to a recent study conducted by the traffic department, vehicles move at a pace of 9 to 18 kmph even on vital roads. Commuters claim the situation isn’t better on the highways.
Meanwhile, traffic officials claim that they are doing their best to improve the situation and have blamed the contractors for not complying by the norms.“We have deputed adequate manpower at chronic spots in the city. We have also instructed contractors undertaking various civic works to install the necessary precautionary measures to avoid inconvenience to the public,” said DCP (traffic) Sandeep Palve.