To remove traffic bottlenecks at several points on the city’s busiest route – Orange Gate in south Mumbai to Ghatkopar, will soon witness a hassle-free ride – thanks to the MMRDA’s pet project – Eastern Freeway, which will be thrown open to public in the third week of April. This over 16 km distance which now takes 75 minutes to two hours to cover will be cut down to 25 minutes. 

 

"The last 3 km portion of the Freeway from Chembur to Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road is on the verge of completion. Once that stretch is inaugurated, it will especially benefit motorists from Ghatkopar and those travelling to Thane and beyond," said a senior official of MMRDA, the implementing agency of the project. 

 

9.29 KM of elevated corridor, the first phase of the Freeway—from Orange Gate to Anik and  another 4.3 km ground-level extension till Shivaji Chowk in Chembur—was thrown open to public in June 2013. 

 

An official informed, "We have undertaken several measures such as improving the condition at the Panjrapole junction in Chembur so that the waiting time at the signal can be reduced. The project costing 1,463 crore plans to shorten the radius of the rotary island at the signal to provide more road space." 

 

 Two tunnels built to facilitate North-South connectivity on this route will also be opened. “Second tunnel is on the verge of completion as the road surface there is being improved and so, the entire width is not available to traffic for the time being," the official added. Work on a pair of ramps near Bhakti Park, which will help motorists take the freeway to Chembur, is also at an advanced stage of completion. Two other pairs of ramps—one at the Govandi ROB junction and the other at Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road—will also be inaugurated at the same time. A fourth one, which will help vehicles to and from Wadala, Dadar, Mahim and Matunga access the Freeway will be ready in May. 

 

Diversion of vehicles to the Freeway has already relieved snarl on Dr Ambedkar Marg, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg, MbPT road and the Eastern Express Highway. The opening of the last phase will help further reduce congestion on Dr Ambedkar road. Around 50% fuel consumption and that in the levels of harmful emissions and noise are also likely to go down. 

 

The delay in the completion of the last stretch was ascribed to the rehabilitation of 495 families. ‘Many hassles confronted us, the major among them is their  rehabilitation, legalities surrounding land acquisition and hurdles faced by the presence of transformers and pumping stations in the way pushed back the deadline’, an MMRDA official informed.

 

 

WHAT IS ‘FREEWAY’      A freeway is in fact a controlled-access highway that provides an unhindered flow of traffic, with no traffic signals and intersections. They are free of any crossings with other roads, railways, or pedestrian paths, which are instead carried by skywalks and subways across the highway. Entrance and exit to the highway are provided at interchanges by slip roads, which allow for speed changes between the highway and arterial roads.