Commuters in Mumbai are facing traffic nightmares due to barricades set up for Metro 9 construction work and illegal parking near toll plazas.

Crossing the Dahisar toll plaza - a stretch of barely 300 metres -, which would hardly take a few minutes, has become a nightmare for lakhs of commuters from Mira Bhayander and beyond.

Many of the citizens, who HT spoke to, claimed barricades placed for the Metro 9 construction work – on the north-bound road of the Western Express Highway after the toll plaza – and illegal parking of cars and heavy vehicles outside bars and restaurants have led to a traffic bottleneck every day.

During peak hours, the jam goes up to a few kilometers till Borivali East, said Trishna Irani, who takes this route to her place of work in Mumbai. “If there is no traffic, I reach home in 30-40 minutes. Otherwise, it takes around 1.5 to 2 hours.”

On most days, vehicles are stuck in traffic from Dahisar East metro station till the toll plaza, she added.

Another Mira Road resident, Zafar Sayyed, travels to Anand Nagar metro station on Dahisar link road and during his commute, he crosses the toll plaza. He said metro work with no traffic management has added to the chaos. “Despite travelling on a two-wheeler, crossing a few hundred metres is nothing but crazy.”

Sayyed said what could be a five-minute walk takes around 20-25 minutes on the two-wheeler because of the traffic jam. “The traffic police are busy in issuing challans.”

Although there are barricades put up for the metro work, the work is not seen happening at all, he claimed. “If there is no traffic, my commute from the metro station to home is just 14 minutes, which is now 45 minutes.”

When contacted, Metro 9 officials blamed the underground utilities for the delay in work.

“When we started the work, we found 20 different cables and a water pipeline that needed to be diverted. We are waiting for it to happen so that we can finish the work,” an official said, adding, “We are in talks with other agencies to divert their utilities.”

Construction work on the entry/exit to the metro station is under way at the spot, the official said. “There is a plan to reduce the width of the barricading for a smoother flow of traffic.”