MMRDA to undertake Rs 76,299 crore projects in the next two years

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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will undertake projects worth Rs 76,299 crore in the next two years. With MMRDA wanting to open the Metro Line 2A (Dahisar-DN Nagar) and Line 7 (Dahisar East - Andheri East) by the end of 2020, over five metro lines are expected to be completed in the next two years, with Line 2B (DN Nagar-Mandale), Line 4 (Wadala-Kasarvadavali) and Line 6 (Swami Samarth Nagar-Vikhroli) following suit. Once completed, these lines are expected to serve more than 50 lakh commuters at 98 stations across the city.

MMRDA said over Rs 44,869 crore will be spent on Metro projects for which over 550 engineers, 8,500 skilled workers and 9,500 unskilled labourers are at work. It said this has also given a boost to job creation in the metropolitan region and various industries such as steel, cement, technology, electronics and ancillary.

Metropolitan Commissioner RA Rajeev said, "We are overcoming the biggest challenge one might face, which was to do these development projects without having to completely stop the vehicular traffic even for 10 minutes. Mumbaikars have shown great patience, now it is time to reap rewards."

Apart from the Metro network, Rs 31,430 crore will be spent on infrastructure projects which will ease traffic bottleneck, the most crucial being the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) and the Virar-Alibaug Multi-Modal Corridor.

The Rs 17,843 crore will be connecting Sewri with Nhava Sheva and will be a six-lane bridge across the Mumbai Harbour. The ambitious project will help solve the traffic congestion in the island city by improving connectivity between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. The sea-bridge will also connect Sewri to Worli and also further connect the Coastal Road as well as the Western Express Highway via Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

The 22-km MTHL will provide direct access to Navi Mumbai International Airport and will also prove to be a convenient gateway to Pune Expressway. The project is expected to compete 40% of its work in the next year, with current progress being over 15%.

The 126-km multi modal corridor is also divided in two phases - Virar to Balavali which will be of 79 km (Rs. 9,326 crore) and Balavali to Alibaug which will be of 47 km (Rs 3,649 crore). The corridor will be an eight-lane stretch with separate lanes for metro and bus rapid transit system. As many as 20 flyovers, 15 interchanges and 45 underpasses will be available in the road marvel which is expected to cost around Rs. 12,975 crore. While most of the land acquisition has been undertaken, the remaining will be taken care of early next year and physical work will begin of the first 23-km phase (dedicated to heavy vehicles) from Navghar to Anjur.

Besides these two magnum opus projects, there are several other bridges and connectors which will be beneficial to Mumbaikars. There are two flyovers (cost estimated to be around Rs 163 crore) and a road coming up to clear the BKC Junction. The total length of the two flyovers- one, from BKC to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and two, Bandra-Worli Sea Link to BKC is 1,888 metres. Also planned is a 300-metre long and 12- feet wide road running through the government land to streamline traffic from Dharavi to Sea Link. MMRDA has completed 51% of the work and will offer the link to Mumbaikars next year.

MMRDA is also working to decongest BKC and Sion-Chembur Link Road junctions by constructing two roads at an estimated cost of Rs. 499 crore. The 1.3 km elevated road running from MTNL junction to LBS flyover will clear the BKC and another 3.89 km elevated road from Kurla (Kapadia Nagar) to Vakola near Western Express Highway will decongest the SCLR junction.

There are three elevated roads that will be completed next year. The left-hand side lanes of both Mankoli and Rajnoli bridges on the Mumbai-Nashik national highway will be completed to clear congestion. The third will be the Rajiv Gandhi flyover on Kalyan-Bhiwandi road which will bring relief to commuters in the area.

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