The motorman’s strike and cancellation of trains caused huge traffic jams across the city. The traffic police said every lane in the city was packed and the traffic was stagnant for over eight hours.
“This traffic jam will continue until the crowd on the roads decrease,” said a traffic officer.
The traffic police deployed 1,500 personnel on the city roads to control the traffic and maintain a smooth flow after the trains got cancelled and commuters opted for road transport.
“Every road is blocked and we are trying to deploy as many policemen to ease out the traffic,” said a traffic policeman.
“We are trying our best to help people reach their destinations and see to it that the traffic flow is smooth,” said Ashok Takalkar, assistant commissioner of police (traffic).
“It took us two hours to reach Dadar from Mumbai Central. All train commuters had crowded the Dadar TT circle waiting for buses and taxis,” said Sujata Pandit, a computer software designer who works at Nariman point.
“The policeman are shoving everybody in whatever vehicle they can. There is chaos in CST as commuters are panicking and running helter-skelter in search for vacant taxis or buses,” said a commuter outside the CST.
Commuters got into the first available vehicle to get home. They asked for lifts from private trucks and tempos.
“There was total chaos. We tried to accommodate commuters in all types of vehicles. Our main aim was to reduce as many people as possible on the roads and not allow the numbers to stagnate,” said a traffic constable at Matunga who was stopping an empty truck to let people board it.
“People created utter chaos as they were desperate to reach their destinations on time,” added the constable who had been trying to stuff people into a bus.
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