Developing infrastructure on this road, which connects Mumbai and Thane with Nashik and other northern places is the job of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)

MUMBAI: With a huge volume of vehicles using the Mumbai-Nashik Expressway, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has planned an elevated road from Thane to Padgha. Last week, the Authority commissioned a detailed study for the project.

“The traffic has increased manifold and the widening of the existing road (Bhiwandi bypass) is happening at a slow pace,” said MMRDA commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee. “We have commissioned a study for an elevated road. Motorists will have to pay a toll for using it but can travel without any hindrance from Thane to Padgha. This will also serve as a connector to the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway.”

Developing infrastructure on this road, which connects Mumbai and Thane with Nashik and other northern places is the job of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The old Bombay-Nashik road passed through Bhiwandi and was full of warehouses. Hence, during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule from 1995 to 1999, the then PWD minister Nitin Gadkari planned a Bhiwandi bypass, which was a tolled road. But with time, a lot of illegal godowns sprung up along the new bypass.

The quality of the Bhiwandi bypass deteriorates in the monsoon, giving way to innumerable potholes. As a Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) minister, chief minister Eknath Shinde used to visit the potholed road every monsoon. Shinde hails from Thane and his son Shrikant is an MP from Kalyan-Dombivali, which is also connected by the Bhiwandi bypass.

MMRDA has already constructed two flyovers on the Bhiwandi bypass. In anticipation of the volume of traffic rising due to the Samruddhi Expressway, NHAI had put out a tender to widen the road from Padgha to Thane to an eight-lane highway, but there have been immense delays due to the contractor’s financial problems. The NHAI has now given a contract to MSRDC, but the work has not been happening speedily.

At present, the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway has been opened till Igatpuri. The entire expressway will be opened by June this year.

A deputy police commissioner who earlier served in the Thane police’s traffic cell said, “The Bhiwandi bypass has been punctured at many places by illegal smaller roads. There is heavy traffic which goes to the illegal godowns on this road, and this impacts the pace of other vehicles. An elevated road can solve the problem but it should be only for small cars.”

Source: hindustantimes.com