As Mount Mary Fair of Bandra and Ganesh Chaturthi coinciding The Mumbai traffic department has a challenging task ahead, with respect to maintaining vehicular traffic.
For Ganeshotsav, the police will completely close 49 roads, 55 will be opened for one-way traffic, 18 will be completely closed for heavy vehicles, and 99 will be marked as no-parking zones. The traffic police will also be using cranes at various important junctions to ensure that any vehicle breaking down is towed away quickly and not lead to a jam.
"We have made an elaborate arrangement for Ganesh Chaturthi. We will also be taking help from NGOs for maintaining smooth movement of traffic. Our men will ensure that there's no haphazard parking on the road," said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Milind Bharambe.
For the Visarjan, 88 spots have been marked this year. "We have created five control rooms at Girgaum Chowpatty, Shivaji Park Chowpatty, near Bada Masjid in Bandra, Juhu Chowpatty and Powai lake," said Bharambe.
The department will have to pull out all stops to make sure that the overlapping of the two events doesn't lead to any chaos. The important junctions of Bandra, Mahim Causeway and Khar are expected to see heavy traffic jams because of Ganeshotsav as well as the fair.
The traffic police, however, have assured that they are well prepared to deal with any type of situation. "We have already made diversions for the fair. It would be a stressful few days for our men, but we will ensure that there are no problems for citizens. We have dealt with both events clashing every year," said Bharambe.
In all means, the department which has done elaborate planning for the festival will have to ensure that there are no traffic snarls due to the fair ending on Sunday.
