Cost of augmenting Andheri, Jogeshwari subways goes up by over Rs 20 cr
Mumbai : Thanks to the administrative delay by the state government, the widening of the two subways at Jogeshwari and Andheri will now cost several crores more than the expenditure approved in initial plans.
The two subways on the Western Express Highway were initially approved in 2012. At that time, the estimated cost of the Andheri subway widening was Rs 10 crore while the cost of the Jogeshwari subway was Rs 7.50 crore. This has now escalated to Rs 20.27 crore and Rs 17.41 crore respectively.
Both the projects are to be carried out by the public works department (PWD) of the state government.
The subway near Parsi Panchayat at Andheri is aimed at vehicular traffic and the other subway near Janata colony at Jogeshwari is for pedestrians to cross the railway tracks.
According to sources, the PWD had floated tenders back in 2013 to widen the subways, but the bids it had received were of much higher budgets. The quotations by contractors were 38% more than the reserve price. Thus, approval from the finance department was needed.
“If the finance department cleared the files in time, then there would not have been much cost escalation,” said Ravindra Waikar, minister of state and MLA from Jogeshwari.
“The two subways are important for people to cross the highway without interfering with the highway traffic. However, due to lack of foresight in the planners, when the highway was widened a decade ago, it resulted in narrow subways, creating problems for motorists,” said Waikar.
The plan is to widen the subway in Andheri from the present 9.5 metres to 30 metres and the one in Jogeshwari from eight metres to 20 metres.
This, however, will mean traffic snarls on the arterial WEH while construction is carried out over the next year and a half.
Pandurang Mhaske
