550 wardens to reduce SoBo’s traffic woes caused by Metro-3

Taking into consideration the traffic issues that have cropped up all over the city ever since work on the Metro-3 corridor commenced, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has appointed close to 550 traffic wardens at several locations on the stretch from Colaba to Dadar where construction activity is underway.

“The traffic wardens have been deployed to reduce the work load of traffic police at several locations. Traffic snarls tend to increase because of the various diversions and partial and complete road closures along the Metro-3 corridor. However, they are only there to help the police and not for any law enforcement,” said a senior traffic police officer.

The traffic wardens are appointed by the MMRC and provided by private agencies. They have been trained in basic traffic management by the Mumbai traffic police. The areas where they have been deployed include Colaba, Cuffe Parade, Kalbadevi, Lamington Road, Mumbai Central east, Mahalaxmi to Worli Naka and near Sena Bhavan.

For the total 33.5-km long Colaba to SEEPZ corridor, a total of 1,000 traffic wardens have been appointed.

A spokesperson from MMRC said, “As per the traffic police’s requirement, the Metro-3 contractors have supplied traffic wardens package-wise, who are using them as per their assessment. This is to facilitate smooth traffic movement in areas where Metro-3 project work is on”.

Although the project is an ambitious one for the state government, its construction work has been causing a lot of inconvenience to daily commuters.