The metro rail construction, especially along the Western Express Highway is one of the biggest reasons for Mumbai’s roads to be choc-o-blocked, but not the only one. Defunct bridges, delayed road repairs and ever increasing vehicular traffic are also pushing the city to the brink of a jam perpetually.

It has been over three months since the Gokhale bridge in Andheri west area in Mumbai collapsed. While the 47-year-old bridge was in desperate need for repairs before it gave in to heavy rains on July 3, it was also one of the pivotal east-west connectors in Andheri that leads to the Western Express Highway on one side and Juhu and Versova on the other.

Since the accident, only one-way traffic of the bridge is opened, along with repairs, leading to chaotic traffic and problems for the commuters.

Gokhale bridge is just one of the 10 bridges in Mumbai that have been declared extremely dangerous and closed for commuters.

A structural audit of 296 bridges revealed that while 110 bridges are in good condition, 61 needed major repairs owing to structural issues and 107 needed minor repairs. About 10 bridges and 18 foot over bridges needed to be demolished and rebuilt immediately.

To avoid mishaps, bridges like the Delsie road bridge in Lower Parel and Freer Road bridge in Grant Road have been closed.

However, there is a slow progress on rebuilding the closed bridges, thanks to red-tapism and bureaucratic delays. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has estimated to take over one and a half years for some of them to become operational. But it's just not the defunct bridges that is causing traffic woes in the city.

Brace up for more, as 1,343 road works have been lined up for the coming months, starting next week. A total of 507 km of roads across the city will be put under repair, of which 305 km or 719 are those, where work was put on hold during the monsoon.

Of this, 305 km spill-over roads, 238.45 km of roads are under the 'project roads' category, meaning they will be newly constructed, not just repaired.

No wonder, why the traffic situation in Mumbai has only worsened in the last five years.

The number of vehicles on the road had quadrupled since 2001. Today, Mumbai adds 700 cars every day to the road compared to 460 in 2011. However, a data released by Mumbai Regional Transport Office (RTO) showed that the cumulative length of roads in the city has been stagnant at 2,000 km over the last five years.

The latest report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) stated that on an average, commuters in Mumbai spend 90 minutes extra every day compared to other Asian cities.

First Published:Oct 9, 2018 6:20 PM IST