Five firms bid to build BKC-Eastern Express Highway connector

The names of the five companies that have submitted bids were not available. Initially, around seven companies had evinced interest in constructing the elevated corridor and had also attended the pre-bid meetings, the official added.

The 1.6-km connector will have to be built over the railway tracks near Sion and Chunabhatti stations, and will thus require the Central Railway’s approval for the drawings and the construction scheme. In the past, infrastructure works such as the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro and Milan subway rail-over-bridge suffered considerable time overruns due to the time taken in getting clearances from the Central and Western Railways.

“We have already received an in-principle approval from the Central Railway to construct the road over the railway lines at the two spots,” the MMRDA official said. The elevated road, which is expected to make the business district more accessible from the eastern suburbs, Navi Mumbai and Thane, will be built from G Block of the Bandra-Kurla Complex to near Somaiya Grounds on the Eastern Express Highway.

The road, which will take approximately three years to be ready, will reduce congestion on the narrow Sion-Dharavi link road and Kalanagar junction. The time taken to travel from the Eastern Express Highway to Bandra-Kurla Complex will also be considerably slashed from about 30 minutes to nearly five minutes.

The MMRDA has estimated the cost of the project at Rs 203 crore. The project was earlier pegged to cost Rs 261 crore. However, the development authority after inviting tenders tweaked the designs to cut the cost by 22 per cent.
manasi.phadke@expressindia.com