Mumbaikars brace for more traffic jam as three major flyovers on Western Express Highway (WEH) repairing work to begin likely by next month. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) which has the flyover maintenance responsibility has already appointed a contractor "Freyssinet" for this job.
Shashikant Sontakke, chief engineer of MSRDC said, "We are waiting for the bearings and soon the flyover repair work is expected to begin. The timeline is of next month but we haven't finalised the dates yet." Meanwhile, he added that the flyover repair work will be taken up one by one only and commuters will not face any traffic inconvenience due to the said work.
These flyovers are namely Aarey Colony, Dattapada, and National Park on the WEH. Another official from MSRDC informed that the designing work of National Park flyover is completed (especially for the bearings) while the other two flyover designing is in progress. He too asserted that by April the work of repairs should begin as expected since the manufacturing of bearings for national park flyover has already started.
At present commuters are facing extreme traffic congestion due to the ongoing metro construction work. In fact, it was believed that the two major metro lines 7 & 2A that are starting this year will finally reduce the traffic problem that Mumbaikars faced in past few years. However, the upcoming 3-flyovers repair work on WEH is another reason that the commuters now need to worry about.
The MSRDC has called an open tender inviting experienced agencies to carry out the work. Following this, the company Freyssinet turned out to be the winning bidder.
Sontakke stated that in co-ordination with traffic police of Mumbai, the traffic blocks will be taken up and majority of work will be carried out during night time to avoid traffic problems.
When asked whether the flyover work will be completed on time, he replied, "We aim to begin the work before this monsoon itself if the work starts by next month. If the contractor needs some more time due to specially designed bearings that need to be replaced, only then it will be extended."
The three flyovers Aarey Colony, Dattapada and National Park are 22 years old and it is for first time these flyovers are going into major repairs, added the officials.
The WEH is important highway of Mumbai connecting western suburbs to the mainland city and to the central and eastern suburbs. Lakhs of vehicles ply on this road throughout the day. It also connects to Gujarat highway therefore during the night a lot of large container vehicles coming from JNPT to Gujarat and vice versa use this highway prominantly.
