As work on NH 48 drags on, factory owners in Vasai-Virar count losses
Since December 2023, when work on white topping National Highway 48 began, factory owners have been spending at least 7-8 hours every day commuting
MUMBAI: When Ravindra Raghuvanshi, 77, was looking to set up a vacuum packaging factory 15 years ago, he chose Vasai for two key reasons. Rents and other capital costs in the area were much lesser than in Mumbai, and it took only 30-45 minutes to get there from Mira Road, where he lives.
“But now, when it takes me nearly four hours to cover the 28 kilometres, I wonder if it was the right decision,” said Raghuvanshi.
The businessman’s plight is shared by nearly 15,000 small and medium enterprise (SMEs) owners whose factories and workshops are located in the Vasai-Virar belt. Since December 2023, when work on white topping National Highway 48 (NH 48) connecting Mumbai with Ahmedabad began, they have been spending at least 7-8 hours every day commuting from their homes in the western suburbs to their establishments.
Business owners have raised multiple complaints about the issue over the past six months, but their pleas have mostly fallen on deaf ears. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which manages the highway, says lack of permission from the state government is holding up and prolonging work on white topping, which is likely to take at least another year.
Left without option, Raghuvanshi and others are now thinking of filing a public interest litigation in the high court.
Six-lane to four-lane
White topping refers to conretisation of the upper layer of a road after scraping and levelling an existing road. NHAI began work on white topping the 121-km stretch of NH 48 between Dahisar and Achhad near the Gujarat border more than six months ago, in December 2023, by closing off one lane on either arm of the highway. This reduced the six-lane highway to a four-lane one, leading to massive traffic congestion, especially between Virar and Ghodbunder, and forcing the nearly 1 million motorists who use the highway every day to take service roads that are filled with potholes. Some recently constructed patches also developed problems, leading to fresh bottlenecks.
“When I set up factory 15 years ago, I would leave home around 8am after having breakfast and reach the factory by 9am,” recalled Raghuvanshi, whose vacuum packaging unit is located in Parmar Industrial Estate in Vasai East. He leaves his home in Mira Road at the same time even now, but never reaches office before noon.
“I have lost 25% business in the last six months and it’s becoming a very costly affair for small and medium enterprises like ours to run units in the Vasai-Virar belt,” said Raghuvanshi, president of Laghu Udyog Bharti, an organisation representing SMEs.
Other factory owners who set up their units in Vasai-Virar to escape the ever-burgeoning real estate prices in Mumbai echoed Raghuvanshi. The condition of NH 48 worsened considerably after NHAI took over the highway in 2022, they said, leading to frequent traffic snarls and accidents. Traffic congestion increased manifold since the commencement of white topping in 2023, leading to huge losses.
“My consignments are often damaged due to the bad condition of roads, which leads to clients rejecting them and heavy penalties. I have no option but to pay such penalties and incur losses,” said Ramesh Panchal, 45, who owns a fabrication unit in Vasai-Virar.
“It takes me four hours to travel every day from Kandivali to Vasai, a distance of just 34 kms,” exclaims Vaibhav Mehta, the owner of Intflex Industries, which manufactures electrical equipment.
“Some of my clients have stopped coming for meetings due to perpetual traffic jams. I have also been forced to cancel several meetings with potential clients for the same reason, leading to losses worth lakhs over the last two years,” said Mehta.
Nishi Sengupta, who lives in Kandivli owns a tableware and cutlery unit in Vasai East, blamed the pitiable condition of the highway for being “embarrassed” before her employees every day.
“My workers live in nearby areas like Virar and Saphale and travel to the factory by train or buses which ply through interior roads. So they always reach on time. But I show up late almost every day due to the condition of NH 48, which is very embarrassing,” said Sengupta.
NHAI to blame?
Business owners and highway traffic police blamed the NHAI for the present crisis.
“Earlier, there were just four bottlenecks along the highway – at Maljipada and Royal Garden junctions due to the construction of a flyover, at Naigaon railway bridge due to waterlogging, and at Chinchoti due to traffic snarls on Bhiwandi bypass. NHAI could have rectified patches of roads in these places instead of white topping the entire stretch,” said Raghuvanshi.
He and other business owners said they had several meetings with NHAI to resolve the issue, but the problem still persisted.
On March 24, BJP MP Dr Rajendra Gavit held a meeting with NHAI, Maharashtra Police and the contractor responsible for white topping the highway to resolve the situation. A bunch of instructions were issued to the contractor following the meeting, including installation of strong barricades at the worksite, filling potholes on service roads, completing work on a stretch before taking up another stretch, and clearing debris from the site.
None of these directions were implemented properly, said highway traffic police officials. “The NHAI covers potholes but fails to carry out maintenance work, which ensures that potholes come up again. NHAI has also failed to construct slopes at the end stretches where work is ongoing,” said Vithhal Chintaman, in-charge of highway police chowki at Chinchoti.
All this has increased pressure on the highway police. On Saturday, they wrote to NHAI asking them for more signages near diversions. They have also asked for more wardens to manage traffic, said Chintaman. “At present we have 25 personnel and 80 wardens. But more men are needed to make sure that commuters do not face more problems,” he said
NHAI officials, however, blamed motorists and other agencies. Several freshly constructed patches developed problems due to motorists driving over them prematurely, they said.
“Additionally, agencies like Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation, Adani Electricity, and Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation undertake work on laying water pipelines and cables regularly, which come in the way of repair work,” the official added.
Stickers and more
Fed up of raising complaints with the NHAI, business owners in Vasai-Virar have decided to protest against the pitiable state of NH 48 by pasting stickers on their vehicles saying, “We pay tax, good road is our right”.
More than 1,000 factory owners have vowed to paste the sticker on their vehicles. “If we continue to face hardships and losses even after this protest, we will file a public interest litigation in high court,” said Raghuvanshi.
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