The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans of spending Rs 7.5 crore to construct three Foot over Bridges (FOBs) on the under-construction Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) is being spurned by transport experts
Experts claim that the 15 FOBs MMRDA constructed at a cost of Rs 25 crore on the Eastern and Western Express Highway (WEH) has no takers, and this project will suffer the same fate. The development authority is planning to construct the three FOBs at Kapadia junction, Buddh-Vihar in Kurla East and third at Amar Mahal Junction.
Transport expert Jitendra Gupta said, “The FOBs constructed by MMRDA on JVLR, Eastern and Western Express Highways have hardly any takers because of their steep climb. The decision to construct three new FOBs is nothing but a waste of public money. If they are constructing FOBs, then they should make sure escalators are also installed else the pedestrian bridges will remain unused. The bridges have a steep ascent due to which elderly and disabled citizens prefer crossing the road rather than using the bridge.”
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Earlier, MiD DAY had highlighted in an article (‘48 steps too many? April 26, 2011) how the costly FOBs constructed by MMRDA were being ignored by pedestrians, who claimed that the climb up is laborious.u00a0MMRDA Joint Project Director Dilip Kawatkar said, “The locals staying along the SCLR have written a letter to MMRDA requesting us to construct FOBs at three crowded localities to prevent any accidents in future. Following which we have now decided to construct three FOBs on SCLR at an estimated cost of Rs 7.5 crore.”
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