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You May Find It Tough To Be In The Island City On Wednesday. Follow This TOI Guide To Escape Possible Chaos

TRAFFIC

A drive around much of island city on Wednesday could turn out to be a crawl, if Tuesday was any indication. Traffic was considerably slower than usual at various places between Mahim and Dadar on Tuesday. The Urs celebrations at Mahim Dargah were there but Dalits had also started pouring into Shivaji Park on the eve of the 50th death anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.


“Several roads will remain closed to traffic on Wednesday and motorists are advised to stay on the main roads — Senapati Bapat Marg and Dr Ambedkar Road — while travelling between Dadar and Mahim,’’ a traffic official said. Movement is also expected to be slow on SVS Road, Ranade Road, N C Kelkar Road, L J Road, Gokhale Road (North and South), Tilak Bridge and Bhavani Shankar Road because of traffic restrictions for the next 48 hours.

Motorists have been advised to go via Kalanagar (Bandra) and Dharavi T junction if they are going south from the western suburbs. Those coming to town from Worli should take the Pandurang Budhkar Marg, below Elphinstone Bridge, to proceed either via Senapati Bapat Marg or on Dr Ambedkar Road after turning from Parel-Elphinstone. But officials also foresee crowds at tourist hotspots like the Gateway of India, Girgaum Chowpatty, the Hanging Garden, Haji Ali, Worli Sea-Face and the zoo.

“Lakhs of people from various parts of the state come to Chaityabhoomi and also go to several tourist places. So speed policemen, who have experience of mob control and bandobast, have been selected for duty,’’ joint commissioner of police (law and order) Arup Patnaik said.

Around 2,000 bandobast speed policemen have been briefed on how to control the crowds. Several meetings were also conducted by police commissioner A N Roy where senior officials discussed the security issue. “Security has also been beefed up around all the railway stations, particularly Dadar,’’ Patnaik said.

Anti-Terrorism Squad officers have also been asked to go on bandobast duty. Personnel from the crime branch have been given specific areas and special branch sleuths will also gather intelligence during the bandobast.

TRAIN

Unnerved by the expected rush of Dalits into the city, Central Railway has arranged for more securitymen than special trains needed to manage the burden of commuters. Just eight additional services are being run — most of them during the wee hours of Wednesday — and regular commuters can expect a huge rush in local trains for the rest of the day.

CR ran five special local services between Kurla and Dadar and three between Mankhurd and Dadar from 12.47 am to 3.45 am early on Wednesday. But no more special trains have been planned for the rest of the day. A huge rush usually arrives by trains from Vidarbha that reach Mumbai later in the morning; the Nagpur-Mumbai Vidarbha Express and the Nagpur-Mumbai Sewagram Express reach Mumbai at 7.30 am and 10 am, respectively.

So regular suburban commuters will have to fight for space on local trains. But CR-Mumbai DRM R S Virdi was optimistic. “We will pull out some more locals from other routes if needed,’’ he said, adding there were some contingency rakes in place. But the homework on security arrangements seemed to have been done better.

Railway Protection Force divisional security commandant S C Pahari said three additional companies of personnel had arrived from Tiruchirapalli, Lucknow and Hyderabad.

“There will be extra deployment at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Dadar, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT), Thane and Kalyan,’’ he said.

BEST

BEST will run 37 additional buses from Dadar to different directions in the city throughout Wednesday for the convenience of Dalits coming to Chaityabhoomi. It has also kept buses on stand-by in case of emergency.

The buses leaving from Dadar will ferry passengers from the eastern and central suburbs where Dalits are supposed to descend on their way to Dadar. BEST, which also supplies electricity to the island city, has made arrangements to ensure uninterrupted power supply. “BEST has put up a stall at Shivaji Park in Dadar to sanction temporary meters to stalls that have come up in Chaityabhoomi,’’ an undertaking spokesperson said. BEST has already given 30 temporary meters and 10 more applications are being processed for approval. BEST Chairman Surendra Bagalkar visited the BEST stall to supervise the arrangements.

Senior officials and a technical team have been posted at the venue to ensure there is no power failure. Two generators also have been kept on standby for any eventuality.



Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Mumbai Edition)
Date Of Publish: 06-Oct-06

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