Six minutes — that is the time you will take to reach Lalbaug from Sion. It now takes 45 minutes to travel the same distance.

And the credit for this goes to residents of Sion and King’s Circle. They convinced the planning authorities that travel time would be reduced considerably if two of the proposed five flyovers were joined.

Ambedkar Road, one of city’s arterial roads handling heavy traffic to and from the island city, had five flyovers in the initial plan between Sion and Lalbaug. The areas identified for these flyovers were Bharatmata junction, Hindmata junction, Ruia College signal (Ashok Tulpule Square), King’s Circle and Sion Hospital junction.

“We studied the proposed plan and found that the authorities could combine two flyovers — King’s Circle and Ruia College signal (Ashok Tulpule Square). It would not only ease vehicular traffic but also prevent the sudden clogging of vehicles just before Ruia College junction,” said Gaurang Vora, a resident of Sion and owner of a pathological laboratory there.

The residents got involved when the planners proposed a flyover at King’s Circle. The flyover would cut through the Maheshwari Udyan, a green patch of land which has been receiving the ‘Best Garden’ award continuously for the past nine years. “There are very few gardens left in the city. And in order to de-stress traffic congestion planners are busy building flyovers by destroying our gardens,” said Vora.