Residents object to flyover bypassing Juhu roundabout | Mumbai News

Mumbai: The four-lane flyover from CD Barfiwala Road to Juhu Versova Link Road, work on which began last month after more than two years of discussions, will increase traffic congestion and ruin the ambiance of the area, according to a section of Mumbai residents and residents. city ​​planners.

While the 1.6 km long flyover is expected to help commuters bypass the busy Juhu roundabout and reduce travel time from Versova to Western Express Highway (WEH) during peak hours from 45 minutes to 10 minutes, it will actually restrict the movement of motorists between Juhu and Versova. one lane and will lead to increased traffic snarls in the area, residents and town planners said in a letter to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner and other officials in August. Having received no response to the letter, they plan to write to the BMC again on Friday and also consult with the potential MP for Andheri West constituency.

Milaan Vigraham, one of the signatories of the letter, who also made a video on the issue on Instagram, said the entry to the Juhu Versova Link Road flyover, which is already congested during peak hours, will occupy two of the three lanes on the road. , compressing traffic towards Juhu to one lane. “It will make traffic worse at the intersection, not improve it,” Wigraham said. Urban planners and architects Alan Abraham and Nitin Killawala, as well as activist Zoru Bhathena, who signed the letter, expressed similar concerns.

“As per the original plan of the flyover, it was to be integrated with the 2B metro corridor at a lower height before heading towards Juhu circle,” said Vigraham, who obtained the information through the Right to Know application. The plan was scrapped in 2018 after a technical committee appointed to review it said the design was flawed and the flyover’s supports would make the interchange awkward. A two-level structure with a road on the lower level and a subway line on the upper level would also create difficulties during construction and create visual clutter, the committee found.

Subsequently, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) proposed to run the flyover through land owned by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). But permission to build a flyover across the site was denied due to height restrictions, following which the BMC reverted to the original plan, Wigraham said.

An official from the BMC’s bridge department, who spoke to HT on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media, dismissed the concerns of residents and town planners, saying the flyover will allow motorists to bypass the Juhu circle and reduce congestion at the junction.

“The flyover is also part of the grand plan to ensure seamless connectivity with the (under-construction) Bandra Versova Sea Line (BVSL). Once vehicles get off the sea route onto the Juhu-Versova Link road, they will be able to travel on the new flyover and reach WEH via Barfiwala flyover and Gokhale bridge,” the official said.

Vigraham and others have questioned this logic, saying that if someone traveling by sea link wants to reach Andheri, they will choose WEH at the end of the Bandra-Worli sea route rather than continuing along the Bandra-Versova sea route, and will then make two flyovers to reach Andheri. destination.

“The BMC’s approach to planning the flyover is flawed. The development plan has many provisions for opening up roads that will facilitate traffic flow at low cost. But the BMC tried its best to ignore the development plan and go back to the proposal they had earlier quibbled with,” he said.