TMC plans to revive two vital road links to ease congestion

19 November, 2018

Thane: The Thane Municipal Corporation is planning to revive two vital road transport links proposed to ease the congestion on Ghodbunder Road in Thane and Kalwa which will not just ease traffic in the suburbs but also cut down travel time for freight vehicles travelling between Navi Mumbai and Gujarat, Nashik.

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The two separate proposals include constructing a bypass road to the old Pune highway at Kalwa naka bypassing Kalwa and Kharegaon along with studying the feasibility of a realignment of the proposed Saket-Gaimukh coastal road. The TMC has sought approval from the general body for conducting necessary feasibility reports to execute these projects .

The first project includes constructing a 30m-wide and 3.85kms-long road connecting Kalwa naka on the Thane Belapur road with the Atmaram Patil chowk near Kharegaon. The around 1.85kms of this vital link will run elevated as it passes along the coastal zone while the rest of the road will be constructed at grade. The cost of constructing this link is around Rs 300 cr and will segregate Navi Mumbai and Gujrat traffic from the intra-city vehicles.

The second project involves constructing the 10km-long Saket-Gaimukh bypass road and the 3.5km-long road link connecting Parsik Retibunder and Kalwa naka. The four-lane road costing nearly Rs 350 crore was proposed few years back but is now revised after taking precautionary measures following objections from the air force base.

Officials inform that the TMC was in talks with the MMRDA over these two projects but the same went on the backburner over the last few years. The TMC has now reinitiated the talks considering the mounting pressure on the existing roads in Thane and Kalwa city and has received an in-principle approval from the MMRDA over executing these projects.

Officials said that both the projects, if completed, will drastically cut down existing traffic congestion on the arterial NH4 and Ghodbunder highways cutting through Kalwa and Thane towns and providing a separate corridor for intercity and outbound traffic. The city presently witnesses roughly 1.5 lakh heavy and out-bound vehicles passing through the network of highways daily often clogging the existing roadways.

“The plans were brought to the forefront recently by municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal at a meeting held in Mantralaya before Praveen Pardeshi, additional chief secretary at the chief minister’s office, Praveen Darade, additional metropolitan commissioner who gave an in-principle approval for the projects. We have accordingly sought permission from Thane general body to appoint a consultant to conduct final surveys to understand feasibility of the projects,” said an officer.

Transport planners and traffic police say the alternate bypass roads are the need of the hours and the administration must not waste more time to execute the same before there is chaos on city roads. The city roads are already reeling under tremendous pressure from the traffic and ongoing civic works which add to the delay in travel time.

“Already the city is witnessing massive traffic snarls thanks to the overlapping of city and outbound vehicles daily. Having a bypass is the need of the hour,” said a transport planner from Thane.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com