North arm of Kherwadi flyover opened, CM lays foundation for BKC-EEH road link

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which Fadnavis heads, has proposed two flyovers to reach BKC from the Bandra-Worli sea link and back. A third flyover will take traffic from Dharavi to the Western Express Highway. This flyover will join a fourth flyover from BKC to Western Express Highway on the second level.

The 1.6-km elevated corridor, for which the chief minister laid the foundation stone, is expected to take three years to construct. The road, which will cost Rs 156 crore, will cross the Mithi River, the Central railway line at Sion and the Harbour line of CR at Chunabhatti station.

As part of the project, the MMRDA will also construct a short rail over-bridge over the suburban line at Chunabhatti to close the railway crossing, which is in turn likely to improve frequency on the harbour line.

The north-bound arm of the 580-metre Kherwadi flyover, opened to commuters on Sunday, will now provide a completely signal-free ride on the Western Express Highway from Bandra to Dahisar. The Kherwadi junction was the only missing link in a grid of flyovers between the two ends. The south-bound arm of the Rs 22-crore flyover was opened last June. The construction of the flyover had brought traffic to a crawl on this stretch. With the highway being an arterial road, the flyover was deliberately constructed arm by arm to reduce the impact of the construction on traffic and is one of the fastest projects to be completed. While the south-bound arm was completed in 226 days, the north-bound arm was finished in 171 days.

Fadnavis said, “I had directed MMRDA to complete this work fast, but even I didn’t expect it to be completed in less than six months. We should work out a provision in our contracts for infrastructure projects to provide incentives for completing work ahead of time and strict penalties for delays.”

Govt will probe irregularities in monorail project, says, CM

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government will probe the Rs 2,700 crore Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail project, in which the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out several irregularities.

The CAG had castigated MMRDA for non-transparency in certain aspects of the project, violations of contract conditions, and issues with the quality of construction. “As per procedure, the report will go to the Public Accounts Committee. However, even we will probe the project to understand if there were any shortcomings so that these are not repeated in future Metro and monorail projects,” Fadnavis said.

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