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SCLR opens today, to cut down east-west travel time

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The 3.5-km bridge is expected to cut down commute time between Santa Cruz and Chembur by an hour
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The much-talked about and much-delayed Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road will be opened for public on Friday morning, without any fanfare.

"Starting from 8am on Friday motorists will be able to use the Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road," said a senior official from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The link road project has Mumbai's first double-decker flyover that passes over the railway tracks of Kurla and Tilak Nagar. If a motorist is travelling from Santa Cruz towards Chembur and takes first level of the bridge, left turn goes towards Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, whereas right turn leads to Nehru Nagar in Kurla. Those motorists who want to avoid the junction on first level can bypass it by going on the second deck of the bridge. It is expected to cut down the commute time between the two suburbs by an hour.

The work that had started way back in September 2003 has finally come to end barring some finishing touches. The road was planned to provide additional East-West connectivity to motorists. With the same aim, the Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road too was widened.

During the construction stage, the planner realised that there will be traffic congestion at Amar Mahal Junction on Eastern Express Highway. To resolve this, in 2009, Amar Mahal Junction flyover was made part of the project.

Once the 3.5-km link road and a kilometre long Amar Mahal Junction flyover is opened, it will partially decongest the Kalanagar-Dharavi-Sion road.

Right from the planning stage to the construction stage, it has been a challenge to pave way for the road. With several litigations and religious structures on the alignment of the project, the project missed several deadlines.

An MMRDA official said, "This is one project where shrines and religious structures of almost all religious communities were present. With religion being a sensitive subject, tackling and providing solutions to each of the communities has been not easy."

If this was not enough, there were litigations filed by the residents of MHADA Colony at Tilak Nagar demanding in situ rehabilitation.

Initially, the cost of the the Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road was pegged at was Rs 114.8 crore, but now it stands at Rs 428 crore. Whereas in August 2009, the Amar Mahal Junction flyover had a price tag of Rs 49 crore, but now it has got escalated to Rs 76 crore.

BEST BUSES
At the moment, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) has not planned to ply any new routes on the link road. Currently, there are two bus routes plying between Santa Cruz and Chembur but use the Sion-Dharavi Road. An official said, "We will come out with a list of either new routes or diversion of the existing services only after study their feasibility."

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