Thackeray Warns of Traffic Breakdown in Navi Mumbai, Blames Poor Planning
Navi Mumbai, October 26: Raj Thackeray, president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, delivered a pointed critique of urban planning and traffic management in Maharashtra on Monday. Addressing a commercial vehicle transport conference and a transporters' rally in Navi Mumbai, he said he was looking forward to the day the people of the state would entrust him with power.
The event drew transporters and party workers who listened as Thackeray outlined what he described as a growing gap between urban growth and civic discipline. He warned that the traffic situation was already at a worrying stage and would become unmanageable without clear boundaries and enforceable norms.
Thackeray stated that he was not against the e-challan system itself. Instead, he questioned the arbitrary way fines were being imposed. He suggested that e-challans should be monitored through cameras with strict oversight, rather than being generated manually on the road by staff.
He further charged that officials were drawing up development plans based on 'friendship with builders' instead of consulting experts or implementing proper urban planning.
He explained that ideally, roads should occupy about 15 per cent of a locality's total area. Thackeray cited the example of neighbourhoods built for 50 people that now house 500, with little provision for parking. He also remarked that bridges and roads are often built with a lifespan of only two years, which keeps repair contracts coming.
Using the country's traffic as an example, he said it offered a clear picture of its present and future, adding that neither driving nor parking was properly understood by the public. He pointed out that automated traffic signals are installed in cities, yet human constables still stand next to them because there is no confidence that drivers will follow the rules.
Thackeray also described a proposal he had earlier put before the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the BMC commissioner, which had gone unheeded. He suggested colour-coding footpaths, using red and black for strict no-parking areas and yellow and black for authorised parking zones. However, he said such measures remain ineffective without public enforcement.
He warned that cities lacked long-term foresight. A breakdown of the suburban railway system, he said, would send a flood of private vehicles onto the roads, bringing the whole city to a halt and leaving residents trapped in their homes.
Thackeray also criticised disorderly buildings and colonies that come up without playgrounds, gardens or sustainable water supply, asking whether such unchecked urbanisation could truly be described as discipline.
Ending his address with a direct political statement, he declared that bringing discipline to transport and urban areas in Maharashtra was not rocket science but a matter of political will. 'I am truly waiting for the moment when the people of Maharashtra hand me power,' he said. His words were greeted with loud applause from the transporters and party workers gathered at the venue.