THANE/M, Sept. 17 -- On Monday, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde did what politicians sometimes do - pacify citizens with late-night assurances. At just past midnight, he met angry citizens in Thane and promised relief from the mounting chaos on Ghodbunder Road. Shinde kept his word. He ordered that heavy vehicles be allowed into Thane via Ghodbunder Road only from midnight until 5am. The move, he hoped, would convince citizens that the crippling traffic on this vital east-west connector linking Mira Road to Thane city will be brought under control. As stranded motorists continued to battle Ghodbunder Road's chaos, Shinde instructed a list of senior administrators, including the Thane district collector and senior traffic police officers, to take strict action against truckers who violate his diktat. But citizens aren't buying into this quick-fix. For two days, motorists and citizens impacted by the gridlock that now defines Ghodbunder Road had marched in protest, demanding permanent solutions to the chaos on this arterial road. Ghodbunder Road, a 12-km, four-lane stretch that links Thane city in the east, and Panvel beyond, to Mira Road in the west, also links up with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway, or NH48. It is also the main artery that connects suburbs from Borivali northwards to Thane and Panvel. Adding to its load, trucks and trailers from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) in Uran funnel through Ghodbunder Road to reach the NH48 en route to north India, since the alternative bypasses at Bhiwandi and Wada are in such disrepair that they are barely motorable. Making matters worse is Ghodbunder Road's pitiable condition. Craters punctuate the surface almost everywhere, slowing traffic, at best, and turning the stretch into a death trap, at worst. In early August, relentless rains made conditions so dire that Shinde visited a section of this road to inspect repairs that simply wouldn't hold. Every time the road is resurfaced, it opens up within days, leaving motorists at wits' end. Avinash Jadhav, chief of the Thane unit of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) sums it up nicely when he says, "The Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway was constructed in just seven years, but the Bhiwandi-Kharegaon bridge has not been completed in the last five years. The Mumbai-Nashik bypass has not been widened for several years. All this leads to traffic chaos in Thane." Meanwhile, on enforcing the new rule that will keep heavy vehicles off Ghodbunder Road until midnight, DCP (traffic) Pankaj Shirsat of the Thane police said, "I have asked for a day's time and will be able to implement this from Wednesday."...