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Rally, rain clog Mumbai's arteries

Heavy downpour and a rally called by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at the Somaiyya Grounds in Sion brought the city to a standstill on Friday.

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Heavy downpour and a rally called by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at the Somaiyya Grounds in Sion brought the city to a standstill on Friday.

After the Shiv Sena-BJP-RPI mahamorcha, it was NCP’s turn to show its strength. And as the party activists gathered from all over the state, the traffic on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) came to a halt.

However, NCP leaders made it a point to mention Friday’s traffic jam as a sign of party’s power. “There are cars standing from Thane to Sion. The traffic is shut and this rally is of NCP alone. Only the NCP has the power to jam the traffic in Mumbai,” said Chhagan Bhujbal, senior NCP leader and PWD minister. The continuous rain only added to the misery of motorists.

“It took me one and half hours to travel from Mulund to Sion. I stay at Kalyan and had come for some work here. While going back it was total jam till Kalyan and it took me around two hours,” said Mahesh Pawar, a business executive. For Rahul Kamble, it was another bad day. “Yesterday it was one hour jam and today it is one and half hours. I have decided never to travel by bus on a day when there is a rally,” he said.

Moreover, addition of more than 1,500 buses was also difficult for the authorities to handle traffic. “If there is an addition of more than 1,000 buses, then obviously there will be traffic chaos. We had informed the commuters about our plans to avoid traffic congestion and we were well prepared for the jam. There was jam near the rally venue, but not anywhere else,” said Brijesh Singh, additional commissioner (traffic).

Parking arrangements for around 1,000 vehicles were made near the Somaiyya Grounds. Some of the sites chosen for parking included Anik Road, Kurla depot, Anik depot, and the Wadala Truck Terminal.

The rally also affected the train and bus services in the city. With the rally participants getting four reserved trains for the event, peak hour services of the local trains collapsed leading to delays. The suburban local system operated at least 10 minutes behind schedule due to the heavy rain. BEST buses being caught in the unending traffic near the Somaiyya Grounds, could not reach their stops on time. Railway sources said three special trains have been arranged to transport the NCP activists to Solapur, Pandharpur and Latur.

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