Reason: the potholed four-lane 26-km Thane to Vadape Bhiwandi bypass, that is presently being widened to eight lanes, is virtually delaying the traffic by two-and-half to three hours over and above usual travel time on its either sides to reach Nashik and Mumbai.
MSRDC joint MD Anil Gaikwad said it will take time till September 2024 to complete the eight-lane widening project.
However, he said around 100 traffic wardens were being pressed into services alongside the traffic and highway police besides road-repairing measures to relieve the traffic under present circumstances.
According to MSRDC engineers even these eight lanes will not be enough given the huge amount of traffic the road gets and hence they are checking if an elevated road can be built.
The existing Rs 1183 crore eight lane widening project was launched in 2021.
The huge volume of traffic that the road takes is creating hurdles in the widening besides the heavy rains, they added.
Against the 80,000 PCUs peak hours capacity, the road gets 1.70 lakh PCUs during peak hours which is humungous for any four-lane highway.
The road though belongs to NHAI, the widening work is being carried out by the MSRDC and its contractor MEP Infra Developers Ltd.
Around 32% of the work has been completed as of today.
Samajwadi party MLA Raees Sheikh from Bhiwandi said the bypass was adding almost three hours of journey due to its bad condition following heavy rains as against normal 45 minutes.
He said ideally the pipeline road parallel to it should be immediately opened for the traffic to decongest the bypass.
However, a senior MSRDC official said if at all the pipeline road is to be started, it will take at least one month as it will have to be spruced up given its bad condition too due to ongoing rains.
The small four-lane bypass takes traffic from six-lane eastern express highway, four-lane ghodbunder road, four-lane from inside thane, another four lanes each from Mumbra-Shilphata, JNPT-Belapur and in future from the upcoming Vadodara and Nagpur Expressways making it the most sought after road or bypass in Mumbai region today.
As a result Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde recently visited the spot and the review suggested addition of an elevated corridor besides eight lane widening.
“Feasibility of the elevated corridor has been sought and a decision will be taken accordingly at the earliest,”added Gaikwad.
