Night traffic on New Year needs change: minister

Mumbai Minister of State for Home Satej Patil took a round of the city on the night of December 31, interacted with police personnel as well as citizens, and found a lot of traffic congestion. He has now decided to curb the movement of goods vehicles, which are usually allowed into the city roads only at night, from next new year’s eve onward.

He said, “I found that goods vehicles were adding to traffic congestion, especially on arterial roads in the suburbs as well as both the eastern and western express highways¿this was at a time when there were too many passenger vehicles.”

Pointing out that since goods vehicles were prohibited on city roads during the day, they were on the roads on Friday night as usual. “From next year, we need to change the traffic regulations for trucks and other goods carriers,” he said. “We can prohibit trucks during the night on the New Year’s eve¿We can allow goods vehicles to ply during the day on December 31 or January 1, when there are less private vehicles on the roads. This will reduce traffic when there are too many private vehicles on the roads on December 31.”

He further said that during his tour of police stations in the state, he had found women personnel did not have access to basic amenities. “The number of women working in the police force is increasing, but there are not enough toilets or changing rooms the police station,” he said, pointing out that it was necessary to have separate toilets and changing rooms for women in all police stations and offices.