Mumbaikars have to pay Rs 743 cr to fix SCLR because of BMC's incompetence

Merely 12 km remains to be widened on Hans Bughra Road where the BMC is unable to remove encroachments PicSAYYED SAMEER ABEDIOnce again BMCs incompetence will cost Mumbai heavily as much as Rs 743 crore this time for the same work that would have cost just Rs 18 crore After watching the civic body fail for five years to clear encroachment and ease traffic on the SantacruzChembur Link Road SCLR the citys other planning authority MMRDA will now build a flyover in order to resolve the issueTraffic jams have been a longstanding issue on the SantacruzChembur Link Road SCLR with encroachments creating a bottleneck on the important stretch It was to ease this traffic that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC started planning a Rs 80crore road widening project way back in 201112While the civic body has partially completed the widening of CST Road and Hans Bughra Road at a cost of Rs 60 crore the project has been stuck all these years because of a 12km stretch on Hans Bughra Road where the municipal corporation has not been able to clear the encroachment thereAlso read CSTKurla traffic chaos MMRDA to clear illegal encroachments on BKC stretchThis is crucial as it would have eased traffic flow on the SCLR and on CST Road outside Mumbai universityMost of the SantacruzChembur Link Road has been widened except for a 12km stretch that continues to hold up traffic movement PicSAYYED SAMEER ABEDIMMRDA steps inAfter watching the municipal corporation repeatedly fail over five years to remove the squatters the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority MMRDA is now finally going ahead with its own plan to build a flyover and ease the traffic load on the road The only problem with this is that the flyover will cost a whopping Rs 743 crore to achieve the same objective that the BMC could have got in Rs 18 croreA senior official from the MMRDA said Had the civic body completed the road widening there would have been no need for a flyover But as there are a lot of encroachment and land acquisition issues we decided to go ahead with our planAnd unlike the BMC the MMRDA will not take five years to start work on the pending stretchAlso read BMCs repair work on 333 roads started Mumbai to face more traffic jamsWe are in the final stages of land acquisition and should be done in a few months Our work on the second phase should begin by October this year added the officialContractors have already been appointed and work is in process The flyover will be built in two phases mdash the first arm will connect the SCLR to the Western Express Highway while the second will connect to the BandraKurla Complex for which land will have to be acquired from Mumbai universityBMC not giving upMeanwhile there seems to be some confusion with the BMC insisting it will also continue with its project leading to duplication of work and further waste of moneySanjay Darade chief engineer roads at BMC said We are still working on the plan to widen this roadA senior civic official involved closely with the project said Clearing the encroachment has become an issue as we tried to move them earlier only for them to return to the spot Another big setback was the fact that we have to acquire land from a number of agencies not just the Mumbai university The process has been going onDatta T chief engineer of MMRDA who is handling the flyover project said There is no problem of lack of coordination because the plan has been in existence for almost two years Several meetings have been held with the civic body to get permissions for the flyover as we need to dig up underground utilities wherever requiredRs 60cr Cost of roadwidening work already completedRs 18cr Cost of roadwidening work remaining