Why it takes 1 hr to travel 7 kms in Andheri East

In 1973 the Maharashtra government pulled out the Modak-Meyer report of 1948 from cold storage. The report had suggested developmental guidelines to connect the western suburbs of Bandra to the eastern suburbs of Kurla. After studies and subsequent developmental plans, a proposal to build a new business centre in what we now know as Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) came about. It took another few decades to develop the area before it became a power-packed suburb in the late 2000s.
In circa 2010, the need to decongest saw the government press for better infrastructure – over 55 flyovers were planned, new roads built and increased number of trains to connect the newly created business districts like BKC, Lower Parel–Worli, MIDC and SEEPZ in Andheri East, Powai and some other suburbs like Malad came about.
While this move to decongest south Mumbai was successful, by creating micro business districts in the suburbs, over time these islands bore the brunt of progress, as authorities failed to include last mile connectivity in their elaborate plans. Over time, it has had a direct impact on the quality of commute in these hubs.
A 2021 study by TomTom, a global agency that studies 404 cities across 58 countries, rated Mumbai as the most congested city in India. This conclusion was drawn on the basis of commuters’ road travel time – almost double of the intended time taken to cover particular distances.
In a four-part series, HT does a deep-dive into traffic concerns that commuters face in the business districts of BKC, Andheri East, Powai and Malad.
We kick off the series focussing on what ails Andheri East.
Mumbai: For close to 50 years – between the 1930s and 1980s — Andheri East was synonymous with film studios that stood between Telli-Gulli and Chakala junctions on the Andheri-Kurla Road. Bollywood biggies had their offices here, but with time the film studios faded away. For example, Prakash Studio paved the way for a housing complex, M&T Studio which was gutted in a fire in the 1960s paved the way for a pharmaceutical company, while Modern Studio had to shut down when the Western Express Highway (WEH) was constructed right through it in mid-1960s.
The big change however came on May 1,1973, when the Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) was set up over a 110-acre plot of land to accelerate the progress of electronics manufacturing in India and to take advantage of the growing global electronics market. Later, in 1987-1988, the government decided to permit manufacturing and export of gems and jewellery from the suburb.
These developments changed the landscape, until then defined by some of the oldest settlements of erstwhile East Indian villages at Pump House, Chakala, Gundawali, Sahar and Sakinaka. The narrow Andheri-Kurla Road which ran through the villages could no longer bear the pressure of people and rising number of vehicles. To decongest the area, the government planned a six-lane overhead highway connecting Versova and Ghatkopar, which never saw the light of day.
“By 2005, the condition of Andheri-Kurla Road became such that during peak hours it would take one about an hour to cover seven kilometers from WEH to Marol, which can be covered in 20 minutes. It was a nightmare for passengers getting down on the eastern side of the Andheri railway station, auto-rickshaw drivers understandably refused trips to SEEPZ and other parts of MIDC,” said a retired corporate professional, who served as a police officer in the area in the early 2000s.
Around this time, the government decided to widen the Andheri-Kurla Road, “which brought some relief as the traffic congestion on the stretch eased”. The retired officer however noted that the government did not address the problem of connectivity to either SEEPZ or MIDC and ignored the narrow lanes that connect the areas from Andheri-Kurla Road or from the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road.
Historical neglect
Over two decades later, the traffic congestion in the area continues to remain the same evidenced by traffic jams even in the middle of the day.
The metro line conceptualised to decongest the area, also runs along the Andheri Kurla Road and does not address the much-needed last mile connectivity issues. It was designed to ease road congestion, but while the trains travel above the ground, the road below remains congested and difficult to travel on.
The apathy on the Andheri-Kurla Road, an arterial thoroughfare that provides east-west connectivity, poses the toughest challenge for civic officials and corporators in K-East Ward. The traffic on the 3.5-km road from WEH to Andheri MIDC is unpleasant, thanks to the huge craters and illegal parking along the road. The road itself has been rough since the metro work started in 2007, said locals.
“The condition of the road connecting Andheri West and East is fodder for a readymade script for stand-up comedians,” said Sudhir Badami, traffic expert who stays near the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), which is an entry point to MIDC and SEEPZ. The closest railway station to SEEPZ is Andheri which is six kilometers away. “The diversion road from JVLR to MIDC is narrow, as compared to the flyover and the U-turn signal is confusing causing traffic jams,” he added.
Hargun Singh, an F&B entrepreneur who lives in Andheri West and travels to his MIDC office every day, said, “Just to cross over from West to East takes over an hour. Since the Gokhale bridge is closed, I have to travel all the way to Vile Parle to get to the other side.”
Rough road
Andheri East is known for being busy with many IT service providers and industrial hubs in the proximity. But it is not a place for walkers and the transport system is poor. With low frequency and overcrowding on BEST buses, commuters are left to the mercy of share autos to travel the distance of around six kilometers from the railway station to MIDC.
The nearest metro station to MIDC is Chakala (B Nagar), a mere four kilometers away, “but walking to work is not possible and the crowd at the bus depot at Andheri East seems to be increasing by the day,” said Dhawal Ashar, head of Sustainable Cities and Transport programme, at the World Resources Institute, Mumbai. Ashar said while many corporates provide shuttle services to the railway station, maximum number of working-class people travel by BEST buses or autos in Andheri.
Most commuters are at the mercy of unruly and reluctant auto drivers. A cartel of illegal share autos has emerged outside metro stations and their demand is on the rise with Metro lines 2A and 7 taking off.
Mumbai Traffic Police are reluctant to grant permission to share auto stands, although the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority (MMRTA) had in mid-September permitted shared autorickshaws outside metro stations on Lines 1, 2A and 7, after traffic police’s clearance.
M Ramkumar, additional commissioner of police (traffic) said, “Drivers of shared autorickshaws are unruly and care little for traffic rules. This is one of the reasons for not granting permission to shared autorickshaws. We will allow them to ply only when we see some improvement in the way they function.”
Road transport expert Jitendra Gupta considers shared autos a “disadvantage to people”. “The drivers outside railway stations form an organised group and harass regular auto drivers who ply on established meter fares. They also bully passengers into sitting next to them on the driver’s seat which is illegal,” said Gupta.
Vedant Mhatre, programme manager, Walking Project, said, “Most of the corporate neighbourhoods in the suburb are serviced by the Metro Line 1. The recently widened footpaths under this line on the Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road are an amazing improvement over the earlier arrangement. But they disappear quickly on the internal streets branching out from the main road.”
He also drew attention to the surfaces of the footpaths which are either extremely poor or taken over by street vendors. “The intersections lack modern pedestrian safety features and have poor zebra crossing layouts. Bus stops and rickshaw stops are barely organized and lack adequate space to handle the heavy crowds by the bus stops,” he said, insisting that feeder buses and rickshaws from SEEPZ and Marol may be considered with dedicated infra for drop-off at the metro stations for quicker last mile journeys to and from the metro stations.
(Check this space tomorrow for commuters’ travails in BKC.)