Ban on heavy vehicles reduces burden on express highways

As complaints of congestion increased in 2013, the Mumbai Traffic Police issued a blanket ban on commodity vehicles from commuter-heavy highways during peak hours — 7 am to 11 am for south-bound traffic, and 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm for north-bound traffic.

Traffic junctions at Vikhroli, Chembur and Goregaon have seen the best results, along with arterial roads around BKC and Parel. The biggest problem spot: Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road has now lesser traffic at peak hours, according to traffic reports.

“Goods carriers and heavy vehicles were the major cause for long snarls on both the highways,” said Pratap Dighavkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (traffic). With no traffic data to back “this obvious assumption”, Dighavkar says they looked to study transit patterns across the city over 2013.

“One police sub-inspector and six constables were posted at each traffic post across the city’s highways to monitor signal cycles and traffic packets and relay information to the next traffic post and controls,” he said.

A traffic packet is the volume of vehicles that stop at every traffic signal. The circle of consecutive traffic halts at a traffic junction constitutes a signal cycle. “For two months, we studied each traffic packet and tried to understand what kind of vehicles take the maximum road length. We then studied the traffic signal cycles, comparing the vehicle groups before arriving at the time-gap rescued. Notes and graphics were made on each traffic snarl and studied,” said Dighavkar.

The study found that before the ban, commuting between Mulund and CST would take a minimum of an hour and 35 minutes, while a similar length in Western Express Highway was not less than two hours. The Traffic Police wrote to the Regional Transport Office to avail parking space on their grounds near octroi check posts. “We now stop the goods carriers after they have cleared the check post and ask them to park at RTO grounds for the ban hours,” said Dighavkar.

At highways, traffic personnel also have been given powers to take action against errant heavy vehicle drivers. “We have acted against drivers and have ensured that the ban is implemented on all days,” said D S Shelke, inspector, Vikhroli traffic post.

On the WEH, the traffic police now also have a directory of vehicles that come from Gujarat, and are held at check posts. Interestingly, the heavy vehicle traffic on the eastern side consists more of containers and commodity trucks because of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Mumbai Port Trust, and heavy vehicles on the western side include more cement mixers and construction equipment due to real estate activities.

megha.sood@expressindia.com