Fly over Panvel city in 5 mins from today

Motorists using the Sion-Panvel highway to get to Pune and beyond can heave a sigh of relief, as CM Prithviraj Chavan will inaugurate the much-needed Panvel flyover at 11 am today.

New Beginnings: The Panvel flyover will be inaugurated by CM Prithviraj Chavan today. The 2.4-km flyover cost Rs 140 crore to build

The 2.4 km flyover built at a cost of Rs 140 crore will decrease travel time radically, as earlier motorists would take up to one hour to commute through the 2 km stretch of road that passes through heaving Panvel city.

With Panvel becoming populous in recent years, commute in the area had turned nightmarish, what with the road being narrow and unable to accommodate the heavy vehicles and outstation buses that passed through the city daily. That's why the reason to construct this flyover was taken.

With the opening of the new flyover, motorists will now only take five minutes to bypass Panvel city. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is the implementing authority of the project, started construction of the flyover in 2009.

The congestion in this area was so bad that at times motorists were stuck in traffic for more than an hour to just cover the distance of 2 km. Moreover, with diversions in place due to the ongoing construction, motorists going towards NH-4 via Panvel had to take a bumpy alternative route.

Moreover, it will also induce travelers to opt for the old Mumbai-Pune Highway, after which the volume of traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway will decrease. The 17-metre wide Panvel flyover, that offers two lanes each for up and down traffic, starts at Ashoka Lawn and ends about 300 metres ahead of the junction at Gandhi Hospital.

The 1.5 km long main flyover also provides two arms of 437 metres each. These two additional 5.5-metre wide ramps begin at New Panvel Junction and touch down at about 120 metres beyond Dr Ambedkar Junction. u00a0