CST road at Kismat Nagar torments roadies as they stumble on scores of scrap shops 

 

Visit the CST Road at Kismat Nagar, Kapadiya Nagar and Mehmat Nagar in Kurla west and have a feeling of sauntering in interstellar junkyard mostly depicted in Hollywood sci-fi movies. The high density road throws up a messy picture – mounds of rusted cars and automobiles greet you once your car stuck in this traffic island.

 

They encroached on the street and to one’s amazement virtually two third of this crucial Broadway is occupied by them. The so called ‘gold mine’ as the locals used to call this trade is giving sleepless nights to commuters. Due to this traffic moves at snail’s pace there. This freeze-frame picture has become a perennial sight on this important route that connects eastern suburbs with state of the art Bandra-Kurla Complex.

 

Blaming the government for this, a scrap dealer said, ‘even after the completion of the flyover on this stretch, part of Santacruz-Chambur-Link-Road Project (SCLR) – an ambitious plan to facilitate east-west connectivity, the traffic chaos during peak hours fail to subside.’

 

When contacted, the BMC’s deputy chief engineer DPDT reasoned, ‘the project is delayed because of the resettlement issue of the slums that are falling on the proposed route. The issue is still unresolved.’

 

Gammon India is building the proposed flyover under the public-private-partnership module (PPP).An official on condition of anonymity said, ‘the unholy nexus between the scrap mafia and city traffic police is responsible for the chaos.’

‘They receives whopping amount as hafta (bribe, as it is called by locals here).’

 

‘During monsoon the situation even become worse, as the area witnesses a plenty of cases of tyre-bursts due to sharp pieces of metals lying on the streets. They cannot be detected as they lie hidden under waterlogged streets,’ he continued.