PIL against ban on two-wheelers on JJ Flyover

Trashing the traffic police for banning two-wheelers on the J J flyover, since April 1, a PIL was filed before the Bombay High Court today, seeking quashing of the order which is “depriving the twowheeler riders the benefit of saving precious travel time and fuel.” The police should keep a watch on errant motorists and ensure upkeep of the signboards and devices on the flyover to prevent accidents, the PIL says.

The petition filed by Salim Shaikh of the NGO Impact, through lawyer Mubin Solkar, says that until May 2001 - when the 2.4 km-long flyover was inaugurated - the congested Mohammad Ali Road replete with narrow lanes was notorious for its round-the-clock traffic. “Motorists would take almost 35-40 minutes to cover the stretch. The government found constructing the flyover to be the only solution to resolve the daily traffic snarls,” the petition states, adding that the flyover shrunk the 35 minute-travel time to five minutes even during peak hours.

Referring to the traffic police statistics of 31 fatal accidents having occurred in the last five years, 23 of which involved two-wheelers, the petition attributes it to several factors like rash driving by both two-wheeler and four-wheeler motorists, and also the police’s failure in safeguarding the flyover. The petition elaborates, “Instead of this ban, the police should initiate effective measures like reinstalling latest safety gadgetry like cat-eyes, speed regulators, highpowered reflectors, warning boards etc.” Calling the banning decision ‘wholly arbitrary, illegal and in violation of basic rights of two-wheeler riders’, the petition says that the police is only trying to use a short-cut to escape from its basic duty of ensuring accidentfree commuting on the flyover.

Solkar said, “ The police must undertake serious traffic safety measures and step up vigil to ensure all rules are followed. Also, like on Bandra-Worli Sea Link, the police here should install proper signboards, fresh cat-eyes, which get stolen from J J flyover and never get replaced. For instance, three cm-thick speed arresters are put in a zig-zag manner on the BWSL, while on J J flyover they are one cm-thick and are put in a straight line. Obviously, bikers cheat these arresters on J J, by maneouvring their way out.” The petition also points out that one of the drastic fallouts of the ban has been an increase in fuel consumption by motorists, as what consumed 62.5 ml of petrol for a flyover commute now takes around 500 ml of petrol to cover the same stretch below the flyover.

Coming up: Endless delays for Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road

Mumbai: Here’s a piece of bad news for several Mumbaikars seeking better east-west connectivity in the city. After facing numerous hurdles for six long years, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) still faces a situation of stalemate for its ambitious Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) project.

The World Bank (WB) sponsored project, which is expected to ease traffic woes while traveling between the western and eastern suburbs, is stuck as the MMRDA is yet to acquire land required for its completion.

Even World Bank officials, on their recent trip to reviewMumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), had expressed concerns over delay in the SCLR project.

During their meeting, the WB officials had specifically brought up discussions aboutSCLR and had snubbed MMRDA officials over the delay.

Following the meeting with WB, the MMRDA seems to have woken up and requested the state government to issue a notification for the land acquisition. The state government on its part, just a couple of days back, issued a notification for acquiring the two plots at Kurla, which have delayed the project. The notification has given a month’s time for suggestions and objections to be made for the acquisition process.

According to a press statement issued by MMRDA, the two plots in Kurla measuring a total of 5,100 square metres (CTS No.408A measuring 347.5 square metres and CTS No.450/1 to 40 measuring 4,789 square metres) are to be acquired by the authority for construction of SCLR.

When questioned about why the MMRDA has not acquired the plots in the last six years, the authority spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar said a lot of efforts were made to persuade the occupants of the plots to vacate them for building the SCLR. “We tried our best to go ahead through talks with the occupants.

However, since the deadlock could not be resolved, we had to request the state government to issue a notification through its urban development department (UDD) for acquisition,” said Kawathkar. “The acquisition is proposed in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 32 of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act, 1974 (Mah.IV of 1975).”

However, the acquisition process is expected to be tough and long-drawn as one of the two plots (CTS No.450/1 to 40) has many occupants on it. Moreover, after acquiring the plots, if any of the occupants move court, the project may end up getting further delayed.