Man on top of Grant Road skywalk causes chaos, traffic jam

A 90-minute-long, tense rescue operation led to chaos and traffic jam at the Nana Chowk near Grant Road railway station on Wednesday morning after a man climbed on the roof of the skywalk.

Shakil Ahiya, 24, was seen running on the roof of the skywalk between Nana Chowk and Grant Road railway station while fire brigade made efforts to convince him to climb down.

The Gowalia Tank fire brigade, located right at Nana Chowk junction was quick to respond and managed to rescue the man after a long 90-minute drama.

The whole issue started around 8am and the man was overpowered by three firemen and brought down from the roof of skywalk around 9:30am. Fire officials said it was difficult to overpower him and they had to cut a part of the skywalk roof to bring him down.

Gowalia Tank Fire Brigade station officer Bhausaheb Jagtap, said, “We rushed to the spot when the local police informed us that a man was threatening to jump off from the skywalk. It was a risky operation, he could have fallen and injured or killed himself. He even climbed on to the roof of the railway bridge. Had he fallen on the overhead wire of the track, he would have died instantly. This is a busy junction and it led to traffic jam. He kept blabbering that he wanted to meet his guru or something.”

PI Mubarak Shaikh, from Tardeo traffic police station said that the traffic was affected for over an hour. However, one lane was kept open for the commuters travelling south bound. “Only after the fire brigade officials managed to bring the man down, the traffic was back to normal,” Shaikh said.

After rescuing the man, he was handed over to the Gamdevi police. According to the an official from the police station, “He was heavily drunk and hails from Mori village in Assam.”