Navi Mumbai police use 'magic' to regulate visarjan traffic

Efficient management by Navi Mumbai traffic police has helped keep traffic snarls at bay.

The concerns of making your way through heavy traffic were high this year due to the bad condition of the Sion-Panvel highway and Mumbra bypass, which were pressuring internal city roads.

Interestingly, this year, the traffic police made use of 15 Magic rickshaws (six-seater rickshaws, used to ferry passengers) to regulate traffic at every 2km distance on the highway.

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Vijay Patil, who conceived this idea, said, “Last year, we had used two autorickshaws, but this year bad roads were a big challenge.

So, we decided to use the Magic rickshaws on the entire 45km stretch that falls in the jurisdiction of Navi Mumbai traffic police. Of this stretch, Sion-Panvel highway constitutes  21km; Panvel 7km and NH-17 (from Palaspa Phata) 17km. Ten rickshaws were stationed along Sion-Panvel route, two in Panvel and three along NH-17.” 

Patil added, “The purpose behind pressing these rickshaws in service was to cut down on the response time that is taken till arrival of cranes.

All these vehicles were fitted with display board so that any vehicle which is broken down can avail their services; these rickshaws were fitted with cordless mike and also had a first aid box and two belts which can pull smaller vehicles in case of a breakdown. Since break down vehicles were attended to and removed from the spot immediately it did not lead to any traffic snarl on the highways, despite work in progress, and consequently kept interior roads free.”

The official said, “These rickshaws also worked as shelter for on-duty traffic police, who did not have any reason to leave the spot. A total of 36 officers and 360 men are manning traffic for 24 hours. In addition, an independent control room has been set up at assistance commissioner of police office in Panvel.

Experienced personnel from all the departments like PWD, ST, RTO, National Highway Authority of India were posted there round-the-clock for better coordination in case of eventuality for follow ups and complaints.”

“Regulating traffic was a big challenge this year, but we have cleared the test as we were successful to a great extent in avoiding traffic jams. We got one lane of Mumbra bypass opened for traffic, after a lot of efforts.

As far as diversions within the city are concerned, we did not divert traffic largely because it consumes a lot of manpower and also confuses locals. People used the Palm Beach Road in natural flow and we had placed out men at a distance of every kilometre,” said Patil.