The Navi Mumbai traffic police have banned the movement of heavy vehicles on the Mumbai-Goa highway from Sunday until the end of the Ganesh festival to be held next month.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Navi Mumbai, Tirupati Kakade, issued the order to this effect on Saturday.
During an inspection of the ongoing repair work on the same route, Maharashtra PWD Minister Ravindra Chavan was stuck in a traffic jam for more than two hours on Saturday.
Later, in a video released from Chavan’s office in the evening, the minister said that after a discussion with the chief minister and his deputy, it was decided to ban heavy traffic on the route for the time being and allow people to proceed to Konkan without any hurdles and the repair work to be carried out smoothly.
DCP Kakade said in the order that a meeting of stakeholders was held on August 23 on the condition of the Mumbai-Goa highway. It was decided that there should be no traffic jams to facilitate the smooth journey of those proceeding to Konkan for the festival. Also, the order said that repair work on the Mumbai-Goa highway is in progress, and hence the movement of heavy vehicles on it has been banned.
The traffic department has suggested alternate routes to be used by heavy vehicles while proceeding on the Mumbai-Goa route.
