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Commuters brace for two more months of traffic nightmare on Kalyan-Shilphata Rd
The delay in completing the Patripool rail overbridge (ROB) on the Kalyan-Shilphata road has angered residents, who have to go through an ordeal while travelling
The delay in completing the Patripool rail overbridge (ROB) on the Kalyan-Shilphata road has angered residents, who have to go through an ordeal while travelling every day.
On Tuesday, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) mayor Vinita Rane said the bridge will be ready by May 2020 instead of March-end.
“There are several technical problems in the entire work and this is delaying the project. The bridge will be opened by May-end. With the Board exams going on, the railways cannot call for a block for laying the girders,” said Rane.
Residents and commuters have blamed he local politicians for the slow-paced work and are fed up of the daily traffic snarls on the stretch.
“Earlier, there were banners put up at the bridge announcing the bridge will open by February. Later, the deadline was pushed to March and now the new deadline is May. Looking at the change of deadlines, it seems the bridge won’t be ready any time soon,” said Sheetal Kundar, 36, a commuter who travels on the bridge daily to reach Dombivli.
Last year, Kalyan (West) MLA Vishwanath Bhoir put up by a banner while contesting the Assembly polls, assuring residents that the bridge would open by February 2020.
Earlier, Kalyan member of Parliament Shrikant Shinde and Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) officials had said the bridge would open by March.
“Again, the project is in focus as KDMC elections are slated this year. The politicos are busy indulging in blame game but no one is ready to address our problem,” said Sudarshan Shinde, 39, who lives near the bridge.
On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders staged a protest near the bridge blaming Shiv Sena for the delay in the project.
“The delay in the project is due to Sena’s inability to speed up the work. They had given a deadline of February 2020 during Assembly polls. There is no sign of the project moving forward,” said former MLA Narendra Pawar from the BJP.
The mayor slammed the elected representatives of the BJP for not following up the work. “MP Shrikant Shinde followed it up with the authorities to get the work done,” said Rane.
Last month, three girders arrived at the site, giving hope that work will move forward.
The work of building a two-lane ROB started in December 2018 after the 104-year-old Patripool bridge was dismantled by the Central Railway in November 2018.
The 21-km-long Kalyan-Shilphata stretch is a vital link connecting Kalyan to Dombivli, Thane, Bhiwandi and Navi Mumbai cities. Around 1 lakh commuters use the bridge daily. The Patripool bridge is on this stretch.
MSRDC junior engineer Aniruddha Borde said, “The work of building pillars will be completed in 10 days. Once this is done, we will write to the railways to call for two mega blocks to lay the girders.”
The new bridge, which will be 110-metre-long and 11-metre- wide, is expected to solve the traffic snarls on the busy stretch. Residents and commuters regularly voice their anger on the social media as they go through ordeal daily.
