Motorists firmly planted their feet on car brakes due to jammed roads in the absence of traffic police, who are on poll duty

Motorists had a tough time staying calm amid the deafening sounds of honking cars and the madness of vehicles cutting lanes last evening.
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There was bumper-to-bumper traffic at various junctions in the city in the absence of 1,200 traffic police officials, who have been posted on poll duty.
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They had to report to polling booths at 8 am yesterday and will be on duty till the electronic voting machines are taken away for counting.

Fed up

Traffic was painfully slow in south Mumbai and the Eastern and Western Highways.

The choc-a-block roads from Maheshwari Udyan to Sion Hospital, Marol Naka Junction towards Saki Naka prompted angry motorists to tweet about their harrowing experience.



Vipul Bondal wrote, "Unusually bad traffic in Mumbai even at this hour."
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Manishjain23 posted, "Unbelievable traffic jam in downtown Mumbai. Don't know the reason.
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Polling preparation?" The situation was equally bad at Dadar TT and from Plaza Cinema to Portuguese Church on S K Bole Road.

R N Dusar, senior inspector, Worli traffic police station, said, "Around 1,200 traffic police officers have been summoned for the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
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We cannot improve the traffic situation with only a few officials." Sanjay Barve, joint commissioner (traffic) said, "Traffic police officers are always deployed on election duty during elections.
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There is no traffic congestion in the city. And there is no such thing as there is slow moving traffic because traffic police is on election duty."

6 lakh
Approximate number of private cars in Mumbai

1 lakh
The number of new cars added to Mumbai roads every year

500
Number of vehicles registered every day in the city

1,500
Approximate number of traffic cops on poll duty

Twitter Takes

Bloody sh't to Mumbai traffic...its already f'''' 2 hrs n i am still travelling frm vashi to goregaon....
-abinashpatnaik

Grrrrrrr!! I hate traffic in Mumbai -jyothibg