Amid the Indian Air Force's AIR Show by its Surya Kiran Aerobatics Team (SKAT) off Marine Drive starting from Thursday, the vehicle movement may get affected, especially during the afternoon hours - for four days, till January 14.
According to local traffic police, the blockage of roads and routes will be determined as the crowd emerges. "We did the same during the New Years. At first we expected a huge crowd, but then realised that the crowd keeps moving, dispersing, so we didn't see any point in closing down routes - that would cause inconvenience to the residents or passerbys. Hence, we managed the crowd, as and when the flow of pedestrians increased, we took a call of closing one of the two bounds to maintain the flow of traffic," explained Satishkumar Raut, senior police officer of the Marine Drive Traffic Division.
Raut, talking about the AIR Show situation, in terms of traffic, continued, "No major closures are on our agenda for now. The show will be taking place during the afternoon hours - between 12 pm to 2 pm, which is non-peak hours for our jurisdiction. If we close down the route, either of them, it will cause trouble to residents as well. We don't want that to happen. For now, the Netaji Subhash (NS) Road will be made a no-parking zone and during the hours of the event, we would be limiting the entry of vehicles from Madam Cama Road so there is no congestion at our end."
The NS Road starts from National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) and stretches up till Girgaon Chowpatty.
While thousands of people are expected to show up to witness the AIR Show, traffic police still feel it's a manageable crowd. For additional preparations, along with the traffic police personnel, traffic wardens and police personnel for bandobast will be deployed, confirmed police officials.
The other routes that may have slow traffic movement during the afternoon hours are Veer Nariman Road, Dinshaw Wacha Road, etc.
Between January 12 and 14, both Mumbai Airport and Juhu Airport will be shut down from 12 noon to 1 pm to make airspace available for IAF Fighter Aircraft. The civilian airspace in Mumbai will be closed for all types of commercial flights, including aircraft and helicopters. The event will include aerobatic displays by the SKAT and the 'Sarang' Helicopter display team, along with flypast, low-level aerobatic display by the Su-30 MKI, freefall and parachute displays by the 'Akashganga' team and the C-130 aircraft.
