Eastern Freeway to partly open by December

Officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) have said that the much awaited Eastern Freeway connecting south Mumbai to Sewri and further to Wadala is set to be completed by December this year.

The Rs531-crore project consists of an elevated road from P D’Mello road parallel to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) right up to the Aanik Panjrapol Link Road (APLR) which will connect to the Eastern Express Highway.

“We are looking at a partial completion of the Eastern Freeway from Orange gate right up to the Wadala Truck Terminus (WTT) road by December. All the hurdles such as utility shifting, issue of right of way in the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) area have been long resolved. The portion is approximately 8-km long and should be completed by December,” said MMRDA chief engineer SR Nandargikar. He added that another 1.25 km from WTT road up to APLR should be ready by March next year.

The road will consist of two tunnels on the APLR. “These tunnels are between Bhakti Park and Panjrapol and should be completed by May. Land for the tunnel has been acquired from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The authority had to reroute the HPCL aviation pipeline and a new boundary wall was constructed for part of BARC land,” informed Nandargikar.

The twin tunnel is a part of four-lane Eastern Freeway as well as the APLR, which starts near the P D’Mello Road and will go on to the Mumbai Port Trust road before joining the Eastern Express Highway via the Anik-Panjrapol link road, near Wadala, covering a distance of 12 km.