August 4, 2025: As Mumbai gears up for the festive season and the typical Monday morning rush, severe traffic congestion continues to cripple major arterial roads, especially the Western Express Highway (WEH). Commuters from the western suburbs, like K. Mujumdar, find themselves stuck in daily logjams, despite Union Minister and Mumbai North MP Piyush Goyal previously raising concerns with the traffic police, BMC, and Metro authorities.
Promised action, particularly for hotspots like Kandivali, has yet to materialise on the ground. Internal data from the Mumbai Traffic Police reveals a deeper issue: a significant personnel shortage that is severely hampering the department’s capacity to manage the city’s increasingly complex traffic systems. Out of 3,835 sanctioned posts for constables and junior officers, only 2,536 are filled.
The shortage includes 1,348 Police Constables and 117 Assistant Sub-Inspectors. Even among senior ranks, 78 posts remain vacant across various levels including Assistant Commissioners, Inspectors, and Sub-Inspectors. Though the department has reported some improvement in gender diversity—with 21 female officers and 433 female constables—the personnel shortfall is directly affecting traffic enforcement, operational efficiency, and emergency response times.
Traffic expert and civil engineer Sudhir Badami, who sits on the state’s BRTS Steering Committee, has called for urgent measures. He believes nearly 65% of private car users could switch to public transport if systems like BRTS were made efficient. He also advocates for a congestion tax and warns that the current traffic crisis should be treated as a public health emergency, given the hazardous levels of air and noise pollution that traffic officers endure daily.
Ongoing Metro construction on roads like LBS Road and JVLR has only worsened congestion. With peak traffic hours stretching from 9 am to noon and again from 5 pm to 9 pm, even late-night traffic snarls are now common in the western suburbs.
To mitigate some of the pressure during the festive period, the traffic police have introduced diversions from 2nd to 31st August. The Tilak Uddan Bridge is closed to heavy vehicles, with specific diversion routes provided for northbound and southbound traffic via Sion Hospital Junction and Kataria Bridge.
Despite these short-term measures, experts warn that the situation is unlikely to improve significantly until major infrastructure projects like Metro Line 3 and the Coastal Road are completed. With the traffic police operating under intense strain, commuters are likely to continue facing delays, longer travel times, and reduced quality of urban life.
Source: The Free Press Journal
