Thane East station to rise by a storey

Some of the planned measures include an elevated east deck that will be connected to the Eastern Highway through a 2.3km-long road

Thane, the only city in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to pursue the Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme (SATIS), has now taken it to level two by beginning groundwork on the east side of its station too. Level one work on the west side has been quite helpful in decongesting the traffic and enforcing a pattern by segregating public transport buses, auto-taxis and pedestrians since the past decade when it was implemented. The east side station will also rise by a storey.

"We have listed out aspects that we thought could not be done or were left out from phase one due to space constraints and will implement them in phase two. Now that the pandemic has slowed, the groundwork has begun and has been targeted to be complete in the next two to three years," a senior official said.

The best part of the elevated east deck is that it will be connected to the Eastern Express Highway through a 2.3km-long road, thus offering a quick decongestion path to the existing narrow station accesses. The project will cost R266 crore for the east side.

An engineer at the site said, "The new project will segregate public transport buses, auto-taxis and pedestrians like in the west side, but there will be many improvements like a higher upper deck so that heavy and emergency vehicles use the road."

"Over 500 buses frequent Thane station east every day. An elevated deck of about 6.5 metres with an area of 8,900 sqm will offer space to about 800 buses with a waiting area for passengers. The elevated deck, abutting the station building, with footbridges for pedestrian movement, will be linked by the 2.3km-long road that will take the public transport buses directly onto the highway. Hence the road outside the station below will be virtually free of traffic," he added.

Two key bridges complete

Kalyan's Patri Pul finally opened to public on Monday even as work of laying girders on the Thane bridge was completed in the past two nights, paving the way for widening of the Eastern Express Highway. The Patri Pul has been completed one month before the deadline of February 2021