In a bid to tackle the ever growing number of vehicles and traffic snarls in the city, the Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP) on Monday issued an order restricting movements of heavy vehicles in the city during peak hours. The restrictions will apply to all heavy vehicles except those providing essential service like vegetables, milk, ambulance, police department, fire department, government semi-government vehicles and all buses transporting passengers, officials said.
According to the order signed by Additional Commissioner of Police, Sanjay Mohite, increase in the number of vehicles plying on the road, ongoing repairs, other works on the road, ongoing metro or mono rail projects and electricity or telephone line works in Mumbai and plying of heavy vehicles transporting good which occupy large amount of space cause obstruction to traffic and inconvenience to the public during peak hours.
"For the purpose of smooth movement of traffic and better traffic management in Mumbai, from 7 am to 11 am and 5 pm to 9 pm, all heavy vehicles except heavy vehicles providing essential service like vegetables, milk, ambulance, police department, fire department, government semi-government vehicles and all buses transporting passengers ,will have restrictions for running on the roads," the order stated.
"At Western Express Highway, metro rail work is going on, and for that, one and a half lane is already occupied. To ensure smooth traffic flow, counter laning has been enforced on both the highways in the city. A major issue is that during peak hours, when people go to work or return home, if a truck stops, soon there is a traffic jam. So now, during the time stipulated in the order, if a heavy vehicle is in Mumbai, it will be parked at a certain place and its movement will be restricted. We have identified places where heavy vehicles will be parked during restriction period. This restriction is only for eight hours, for remaining 16 hours we are allowing heavy vehicles to ply," said a traffic police
