Mumbai: Guardian minister for Mumbai suburbs and MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha ’s request to MMRDA to remove the 9km cycle track in Bandra-Kurla Complex ’s G-block be removed and the space added back to the main carriageway to ease the “unbearable” traffic has met with mixed responses from cyclists and motorists. While cyclists said it was the city’s first well-laid cycle track, it is “underutilised”, urban planners, including NGO Praja’s CEO Milind Mhaske, argued that that adding the cycling space into the main carriageway may not effectively reduce congestion in BKC, instead improving the mass transit system connectivity between the busy Kurla and Bandra railway stations would be a more effective solution. On Monday, Lodha, along with Bharat Diamond Bourse members, met MMRDA chief Sanjay Banerjee and demanded that the cycle track be scrapped to widen the road to accommodate the increased traffic in BKC due to the Metro 3 construction work and the closure of Sion bridge on Aug 1.
The deadline for partial Metro 3 opening is Sept 2024. Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray, in a post on X, said the BKC traffic issue cannot be resolved by randomly increasing the road width. He said the solution lies in studying the newly emerging traffic patterns as new offices have come up, increasing public transport like BEST buses and placing more bus stops, and taking action on signal jumping, wrong-side driving, illegal parking and most importantly removal or better management .