Saying current plan could lead to bottlenecks and congestion, locals want authorities to consider their alternative plan
Work on the sea link has begun at Carter Road. Pic/Rane Ashish
To help avoid the ‘mistakes’ made by the authorities during the construction of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, residents of Bandra have submitted a realignment plan for the upcoming Bandra-Versova Sea Link. After Congress Corporator from Bandra, Asif Zakaria, had spoken about the concerns of the residents, they submitted a realignment plan to him and want it to be taken to the authorities.
The realignment includes two exits instead of three from the sea link in the official plan, and will be cost effective, and could help easy management of traffic instead of the congestion and bottlenecks that could be created due to the current plan, claim citizens.
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The current VBSL plan with one exit at Bandra, one at Juhu and the third at Versova
The Bandra-Versova Sea Link (BVSL) will be 17.7 km long. However residents of Bandra are not pleased with the lack of planning for the traffic congestion that is likely, apart from the Carter Road promenade being divided into two. So local urban planners have drawn their own alignment of the sea link.
What citizens fear
According to the official design of the alignment, one exit is at Otter’s Club, which in future will create a major traffic bottleneck at Carter Road, fear citizens. Further this is planned too close to the existing exit at Reclamation. Likewise, the Juhu connector which exits over a nullah, leads to a roundabout at Juhu Koliwada, and will cause further traffic congestion, and this can be easily avoided by realigning two exits and just having one exit at Khar danda, from where one can connect to Bandra, Khar and Juhu.
The plan submitted by local urban planners to the corporator for the authorities has one exit at Khar danda and the other at Versova
Urban designer, architect and one of the Bandra locals who prepared the plan, Alan Abraham said, “We need to learn from our previous mistakes. By placing the exits from the sea link correctly, we cannot just improve connectivity within the city, but the route will be shorter and therefore cheaper to construct. It will also be better because traffic will be more evenly distributed within the city. This will give us an uninterrupted beach of seven and a half kilometres and an uninterrupted Carter Road promenade.”
All this is being considered owing to the traffic snarls that are caused near Bandra end of the BWSL and even at the Worli end as the promenade had to be interrupted for the exit. Hence citizens don’t the design to be constructed. However, the corporator feels there should be a dialogue with all the stakeholders and the citizens when such mega projects worth thousands of crores of rupees are planned. He also feels the citizens should be heard and their opinions and alternatives should be explored. “The issue was brought up when the construction work at Bandra and Juhu ends began but it is still in a very primitive stage and if the options are considered then the feasibility can be checked,” said Zakaria.
‘Check citizens’ alternative’
Zakaria, who had approached the MSRDC earlier this month due to the fears of the citizens, said, “The citizens have taken the initiative and designed an alternative. I won’t say whether the alternative is correct, but as it is available, the authorities should explore it. They should check if the exit at danda is even possible or not and if not, why not, so that the citizens know that the options were studied and the authorities are open to communicate. When such huge projects are involved, all stakeholders should be consulted, heard and work should not be started without taking the locals into confidence.”
Rs 11,332.82 CR
Total cost of construction of Bandra-Versova sea link including clearances, connectors, etc
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