Peddar Road flyover to rise high to save city’s first one
All plans to demolish Mumbai’s first flyover, which connects Hughes road to Peddar Road at Kemp’s Corner, to make way for the proposed Peddar Road flyover have been scrapped.
All plans to demolish Mumbai’s first flyover, which connects Hughes road to Peddar Road at Kemp’s Corner, to make way for the proposed Peddar Road flyover have been scrapped.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Ltd (MSRDC) will construct the new flyover over the existing one without damaging it.
Under the latest plan, the appointed contractor will have to raise pillars on either side of the existing Kemp’s Corner flyover to place girders for the new flyover. Demolishing the existing flyover would lead to major traffic problems in the already-congested area.
“So we have decided to construct the Peddar Road flyover without damaging the existing one and the pillars for the Peddar Rsoad flyover will be constructed on either side of the Kemp’s corner one.”
The Peddar road flyover will begin at the Haji Ali junction and end at Tambe Chowk near Wilson College, Charni Road.
Infrastructure companies such as L&T, IL&FS, Gammon, J Kumar, GMC, Simplex put in tenders for the new flyover on Tuesday.
Confirming the development, SM Ramchandani, joint project director, MSRDC, said “We have received tenders from a few private players.
The MSRDC is expected to incur expenses of Rs301 crore to construction the flyover, which will take around three years to finish, starting May.
However, it hasn’t received some mandatory clearances —from the Coastal Regulatory Zone and from the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF), and an approval from the traffic police to divert traffic while the flyover is being constructed. Both these, MSRDC officials said, will be sorted out by the end of April.
However, Veena Singhal of the Peddar Road Residents' Association said the flyover was not the answer to the area’s traffic problems.
“As per our information the MoEF has not given permission to the MSRDC to start the construction. The flyover is not going to help to reduce traffic on this road, so the MSRDC should think of long term solutions,” she said.