Get ready for a faster, smoother drive

Come 2010 and you would be able to drive from Sion to Lalbaug in 10 minutes, a distance that now takes at least 45 minutes. Ambedkar Road, one of the city’s arterial roads, which handles heavy traffic to and from the island city, will sport a new look with as many as five flyovers. Chittaranjan Tembhekar gives you an idea of what to expect

The route from Hindmata to Sion junction on Dr Ambedkar Road, which connects South Mumbai to the eastern suburbs, is all set to get a facelift.

The 7km stretch will have a new look, with five flyovers set to come up over the next 20 months. The proposed flyovers are part of the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) and were sanctioned in November 2007. Work on the flyovers began in January this year.

The spots earmarked for these flyovers are Bharatmata junction, Hindmata junction, Ruia College signal (Ashok Tulpule Square), King’s Circle, and Sion Hospital junction.
While the contract for the Bharatmata junction flyover has been awarded to Simplex Infrastructure, the other four flyovers are being constructed by J Kumar Constructions.

Construction of these new flyovers will take the tally of flyovers on Dr Ambedkar Road to 10, with the existing five flyovers at Byculla, Lalbaug, Parel TT, Dadar TT, and Sion. According to authorities, the new flyovers are expected to ease the traffic congestion on the main arterial road as vehicles will be able to fly over at least a dozen signals on the stretch.

The flyovers will help reduce traffic jams and, by implication, fuel consumption and pollution.

But before all this can happen, users of this road may have to brace for a year and a half of traffic snarls. For now there is not much trouble, as engineers have merely barricaded the wide median on the road and are conducting soil testing and other preliminary exercises. But even this limited exercise has been causing more jams than normal at peak hours, with some narrowing of the carriageway.

For motorists, this seems to be a warning sign, with many fearing that once full-fledged construction begins, traffic movement may be crippled. Further, at least two of the spots, King’s Circle and Hindmata junction, are prone to flooding in the monsoon.

But all that is still some way off, with the BMC yet  to formally handed over the entire 7km stretch to the MMRDA, which is leading to delays in conducting initial testing at King’s Circle and Hindmata junction.

But MMRDA spokesman Dilip Kawathkar is confident of completing the projects in the stipulated time frame. “We have discussed the road congestion issue with the BMC and the traffic police to avoid any problems,” he said. “The traffic police have also given us permission to start work on all flyovers at once.”

According to Kawathkar, the flyovers will be built using a pre-cast segmental building method, wherein the road beams would be brought from the casting yard to be fixed atop pillars. This will cause minimum problem for traffic on either side of the road.

But regular motorists on Dr Ambedkar Road have a different story to tell. Ankit Mahurkar, a Chembur resident and a marketing professional with a private bank, is fed up with the barricading and digging activity at Sion Hospital junction. Though he isn’t against the new flyovers, he is not happy with the way in which the construction work has “paralysed” traffic.

“I doubt if there is any coordination between the civic agencies and the traffic police,” Mahurkar said. “At least for the next two years, I will not drive my car. I’ll have to take the train.”

Mahurkar’s sentiments are echoed by Rajendra Sharma, an employee of an infrastructure firm at the Bandra-Kurla Complex. “I get very less manoeuvring space to drive my car at the Sion Hospital junction,” he said.

But the authorities say they have considered all these problems and will take the necessary measures when work begins. To counter the congestion at Hindmata junction, for instance, the police plan to divert traffic via Dadasaheb Phalke Road, which leads to Dadar station, and Naigaum.

Likewise, some of the traffic from Sion may  diverted via Tulsi Pipe Road (Senapati Bapat Marg). But deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Harish Baijal said there is no immediate need to create alternatives. Once work gathers momentum, all these issues would be discussed at the coordination meeting, he said.
t_chittaranjan@dnaindia.net