With Mumbai’s first bicycle track to be ready by April, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to create the first inter-city cycling track in the state.
The MMRDA plans to include a bicycle track on the 140-km multi-modal corridor, which it will build between
Virar and Alibaug. A multi-modal corridor is a high-speed transport corridor, which integrates roads, a Metro line, bus and pedestrian infrastructure close to each other.
Once completed, it will mean that people heading to Alibaug can reach a Virar in 75 minutes. The corridor provides for a 30-m wide Metro corridor in the middle, four-lane corridor for the bus rapid transit system and another four-lane corridor for other traffic, five-metre wide pedestrian pathways on either side, seven-metre wide two-lane service roads on either side, 2.5-metre wide parking lane for four-wheelers on either side, 3.5-metre wide lane for two-wheelers on both side and a two-meter path on either side for a bicycle track. The corridor will connect several new and old suburbs on the 140-km stretch between Raigad and Thane districts.
The MMRDA said it is incorporating the bicycle tracks because it wants more people to use greener modes of transport.
“It makes sense to incorporate these tracks at the planning level while the road is being constructed. If the same tracks are to be set up later it will cost a lot more,” said metropolitan commissioner (IC), MMRDA, SVR Srinivas.