Atal Setu : Police Fines Over 1600 People For Making MTHL A Selfie Spot
Image used for representational purposes.
In less than a month, 1,612 people were jointly fined by the Navi Mumbai and Mumbai police for stopping on the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) to snap pictures following Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration.
Even if fewer people are stopping on the 21.8 km sea bridge, the police are nevertheless going to fine people every day to make sure that there are no unfortunate accidents caused by vehicles stopping.
A grand total of INR 12.11 lakh has been fined; 1,387 persons have been fined by Navi Mumbai police, while 225 people have been fined by Mumbai police. Both Mumbai police and Navi Mumbai police collected INR 1.12 lakh in fines. The fines totaled INR 10.99 lakh.
Even though they are solely in charge of monitoring the Navi Mumbai side of the bridge, the Navi Mumbai police have difficulties covering the whole 22-kilometer span.
“We had mentioned the issue to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), but having a turn at the end of Navi Mumbai jurisdiction could be dangerous for the motorists. Even if the U-turn was restricted to police use, the general population would begin to use it as well. Alternatively, we could create a semi-manual barrier and open the barriers when it’s time to take a turn, but even that could be dangerous if other people choose to utilise it. The people who make policy decisions would ultimately decide what to do,” said police inspector Gulfaroj Mujawar of the Nhava Sheva traffic section.
