Tender flown by BMC for Grant Road's connection to the Eastern Freeway

27 Feb 2023 CW Team

Eastern Express Highway in Chembur's eastern suburbs and P D’Mello Road in south Bombay, just a short distance from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal, are connected by the 17 km-long Eastern Freeway. According to Velrasu, the proposed arterial route will resemble a "dispersal arm" and will start at Orange Gate, which is located about one mile from the P D’Mello Road motorway landing.

“This arterial road is being planned in a way so that the vehicles can be diverted from the expressway directly without them requiring to reach the P D’Mello landing. The entire arterial road will be connected with the freeway in such a way that it is able to reduce the vehicular bottleneck at the southern end of the freeway,” said Velrasu. “The arterial road will be constructed using monopiles to ensure minimum piling work is required. This new arterial road will be a high-speed corridor that will have a total three lanes for vehicular movement,” he added.

Currently, it takes 30 to 50 minutes to get from P D Mello Road or Colaba to Grant Road. BMC estimated that the travel time would be between 6 and 7 minutes once this bridge was open. After the dispersal arm of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link Road joins the motorway, according to civic officials, there will be an increase in the number of vehicles entering and leaving south Mumbai. This will bring an additional load of vehicles travelling not only from Mumbai but also from Navi Mumbai. As soon as the flyover is built, according to Velrasu, this issue will be resolved.

The ambitious 5.6-km-long arterial route that would link Grant Road in south Mumbai to the Eastern Freeway was put out to bid by the BMC. According to civic officials, development on this project might begin as early as October 2023, and monopiles will be used to build the entire width of the arterial road. According to P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects), the project's initial budget of Rs 6.38 billion has been increased by Rs 7.43 billion to account for future cost growth, contingency costs, and consultancy fees. Eastern Express Highway in Chembur's eastern suburbs and P D’Mello Road in south Bombay, just a short distance from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal, are connected by the 17 km-long Eastern Freeway. According to Velrasu, the proposed arterial route will resemble a dispersal arm and will start at Orange Gate, which is located about one mile from the P D’Mello Road motorway landing. “This arterial road is being planned in a way so that the vehicles can be diverted from the expressway directly without them requiring to reach the P D’Mello landing. The entire arterial road will be connected with the freeway in such a way that it is able to reduce the vehicular bottleneck at the southern end of the freeway,” said Velrasu. “The arterial road will be constructed using monopiles to ensure minimum piling work is required. This new arterial road will be a high-speed corridor that will have a total three lanes for vehicular movement,” he added. Currently, it takes 30 to 50 minutes to get from P D Mello Road or Colaba to Grant Road. BMC estimated that the travel time would be between 6 and 7 minutes once this bridge was open. After the dispersal arm of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link Road joins the motorway, according to civic officials, there will be an increase in the number of vehicles entering and leaving south Mumbai. This will bring an additional load of vehicles travelling not only from Mumbai but also from Navi Mumbai. As soon as the flyover is built, according to Velrasu, this issue will be resolved.

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