Brace for major delays on WEH, JVLR during peak hours for 2 more days
Motorists travelling on the northbound lane of Western Express Highway had to face major delays on Tuesday morning as traffic conditions worsened in the wake of an exhibition at Nesco, which is scheduled to continue for two more days.
While daily commuters are well aware of the prevailing traffic conditions, thousands were caught unaware by the nightmarishly slow traffic movement from as early as 8 am today.
Motorists travelling towards Borivali, via northbound WEH or Jogeshwari–Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), complained of excess delays ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours on top of their regular travelling time.
Hundreds of fuming motorists also took to social media to vent their frustration about the traffic situation.
Although commuters were initially clueless about the cause of unexpected traffic, Mumbai Police clarified that it was due an exhibition in Goregaon.
The India Pharma Week exhibition, organised by CPhI and P-MEC India, is being held at the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre at NSE Nesco Complex, Off Western Express Highway in Goregaon East.
The exhibition will be held over a period of 3 days – from 28th to 30th November – and will be attended by thousands of pharma professionals from across the country.
Unfortunately for city motorists, the exhibition is bound to impact the traffic movement as attendees will travel during peak hours for the event, which will begin at 10 am and end at 6 pm.
Needless to say, motorists didn’t take kindly to the mismanagement and blamed authorities failing to take any preemptive action to avoid traffic snarls.
As of publishing this, vehicular movement between Bandra and Andheri has improved slightly, while traffic is still crawling on JVLR.
The 24-km long highway, stretching all the way from Kalanagar to Dahisar, has been plagued by traffic jams since the last few years due to the sudden and sizeable influx of commercial and residential hubs.
The situation worsened earlier this year when work on the 16.5 km-long Metro Line 7 (Andheri-Dahisar) began. The Metro 7 will have 13 stations and is expected to be ready by 2019.
According to one estimate, the average travelling time on the WEH has increased by 30 to 50 percent due to the ongoing metro construction work.