Mulund residents campaign to resolve bottleneck off EEH

Over 15,000 residents of 22 housing societies in Om Nagar, Mulund East, have started a signature campaign to call attention of traffic cops and civic authorities to the dangers they face while driving off the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) to make their way into their neighbourhood.
As they make the right turn from EEH while travelling from the Mumbai side, they face traffic coming from Thane, as the intersection has no signal or bridge. The drivers have no option but to thread through the traffic as best as they can.
“Our campaign started in December and till now we have collected around 2,888 signatures,” said Madhusudan Gutti, a resident of Kamdhenu Cooperative Housing Society. “At peak time, cars are stationary on the EEH, as drivers fear running into the traffic coming from the opposite side. Those going to Thane face similar issues.”
On January 19, the Nalanda Public School in Mulund also joined the fray, writing to both the traffic police in Vikhroli and Navghar. “The unsafe entry and exit to and from Hari Om Nagar to EEH poses a potential risk to the safety of our students, teachers and staff,” said the principal, Nandita Khanna in her letter to the authorities. “More than 1,000 families are affected by this turn.”
Past complaints by the Hari Om Nagar Apex Body Federation (HONAFE) to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), traffic police and MP Manoj Kotak from Mumbai north east, have yielded two options — build an underpass or a traffic signal – but are yet to be actioned.
“An underpass would be the permanent solution,” said Sahebrao Surwade, the chairman of HONAFE. “But till then, a temporary traffic signal could help. We have been raising the issue since two years. While Kotak responded positively, there has been no action yet. When we approached MLA Mihir Kotecha for a traffic signal, he said VVIP movement from and to Thane would be slowed down by it, rendering the idea of the traffic signal untenable.”
“We have looked through the complaints and BMC has agreed to study the feasibility of an underpass. I think they have appointed a consultant for it. A signal would not work here as it is a highway,” said Kotak.
The joint commissioner of traffic police, Pravin Padwal, however said that BMC has responded to the department’s request for a signal here, “which will be installed in February”.