Mumbaikars may have to wait until March 2013 for a seamless commute on the Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR), given recent indications that work on the project may overshoot its present December 2012 deadline.
A senior official from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is carrying out the SCLR project, said the delay was likely to occur due to bottlenecks, such as the setting up of a 1.2-kilometre-long double-decker bridge, which would start from Kurla Dairy and extend to Kurla station and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus at Kurla, crossing the Central Railway and Harbour lines.
Work on the bridge before the approximately 200-meter railway portion is almost complete, he added, stating that MMRDA had sent the design for the steel bridge to the railways for approval, which, in turn, had suggested modifications. The non-railway portion of the bridge will be made of cement concrete.
“Ramp work towards Kurla East is awaiting the total removal of the Halao bridge and its peripheral work,” he said, adding that March 2013 was a more “realistic deadline” for the project to be completed.
The old Halao bridge at Kurla has been demolished and the new bridge is to have an approach by ramp. The official stated that the resettlement of around 3,500 people affected by the project was recently sorted out.
The project, partially funded by World Bank (WB), seeks to connect the Western and the Eastern suburbs of the city. It initially overshot its 2006 deadline, which was later revised to 2009, then to 2011 and was finally fixed at December 2012. These deferrals have led to the cost of the project escalating from the original Rs114.96 crore to Rs254.76 crore, an increase of Rs 139.80 crore.
However, civic activist Jitendra Gupta said that delays in projects like these were the result of lack of coordination between multiple agencies in the city.
“It is very clear…that this is all bluffing business in which all the agencies are involved,” said Gupta, responding to why the SCLR project was being delayed endlessly.
Comments: 1