A truck got lodged in an open gutter at a crucial arterial road near the Andheri station on the Western Express Highway last morning, reducing its four lanes to three and throwing traffic in the area out of gear
A truck got lodged in an open gutter at a crucial arterial road near the Andheri station on the Western Express Highway last morning, reducing its four lanes to three and throwing traffic in the area out of gear
An arterial four-lane road shouldering the additional burden of diverted traffic was reduced to a three-lane one at peak hour in the morning, when the city's office-going millions take to the streets.
|
| A truck ferrying mud from a construction site to a dumping spot at Dahisar, got lodged in an open gutter at Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Cross Road near Andheri station on the Western Express Highway, yesterday |
It seems that the heavens conspired to make this a reality last morning when a truck got lodged in an open gutter at Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj Cross Road near the Andheri station, a stretch on the Western Express Highway.
The road has been exceptionally congested ever since traffic moving from Andheri station towards SEEPZ, Marol and MIDC has been diverted onto this four-lane road to enable metro railway construction work at Andheri to proceed smoothly.
u00a0
To make matters worse, a truck carrying mud from a nearby construction site got entrenched in a gutter in one of its four lanesu00a0 at 9.30 am yesterday, making it inaccessible to traffic, and giving rise to mayhem on the streets.
Siddappa Pillukapadi (33), a worker who was travelling in the truck when the incident took place, said, "It was our first trip of the day, and we were ferrying mud from our construction site to a dumping spot at Dahisar.
The truck tilted when the tyre got lodged in the trench. Thankfully, no one was hurt as we managed to jump out."
The road was blocked for a good 20 minutes as the crane positioned itself to lift the truck out of the trench. Caught in the ensuing traffic snarl was an ambulance on its way from Sanjeevani hospital.
In fact, the trench was so wide that the crane that was called in to drag the truck out narrowly escaped getting pulled in itself. Ashok Yadav, the crane owner said, "This was a delicate operation.
The incident took place bang in the middle of the road, and we had to keep the well-being of a lot of motorists in mind."
Rangappa Gulicipi (30), the truck driver said, "The truck has to be taken to the garage for repairs."
Gulicipi and others on board the truck planted a flag to indicate the presence of the trench, filling it in with stones as a temporary measure.
u00a0
Sidappa said, "We don't want anyone else to face the same problem that we did."
The traffic police claimed to be unaware of the incident that caused a traffic snag in the area for over an hour.
The broken lid of the gutter had MTNL inscribed on it, indicating that the telecommunication agency was in charge of its maintenance. When contacted, a spokesperson for MTNL said they would replace the gutter's cover.
VoicesMy working hours begin from 10 am. At 9.45 am, I was still stuck in a traffic jam. The cars were crawling forward. I had to take a rickshaw as I was running late.
Rohini Hilaf (25), office-goer It was quite scary when we saw the truck hurtling in our direction, after losing its balance.
Rohan Tiwari (19) college student and bystander
