E-Paper
Heavy vehicles prohibited to ply on Kalyan-Shilphata stretch
Three days after the unsafe Nilje rail overbridge (ROB) over Diva-Panvel railway route, part of the busy Kalyan-Shilphata stretch was shut; the Thane traffic police
Three days after the unsafe Nilje rail overbridge (ROB) over Diva-Panvel railway route, part of the busy Kalyan-Shilphata stretch was shut; the Thane traffic police have prohibited all types of heavy vehicles from taking this stretch in order to divert the load on the stretch.
After the closure of the bridge, the vehicles ply on the parallel bridge which had led to slow traffic movement on the entire stretch during peak hours, as per the traffic police.
Instead of taking the usual busy Kalyan- Shilphata stretch, the heavy vehicles will be diverted to the Taloja road- Khoni village road as per the notification by the Thane traffic police.
“In order to ease the congestion and allow free flow of traffic on this stretch, we have decided to divert the heavy vehicles. Heavy vehicles will be prohibited on this stretch from 11pm onwards on Thursday,” said Surendra Shirsat, senior traffic Kalyan
“Currently, the traffic movement of the Kalyan-Shilphata stretch is slow, as 25% of the vehicles are on road since lockdown 5.0. When all the vehicles will start plying, the condition on this stretch will get worse,” added Shirsat.
A safety audit of the 50-year-old bridge was carried out by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), which stated the structure of the bridge is unsafe and should be closed immediately. It was said that in view of the safety of the railway, as well as road traffic, it is suggested that the ROB be immediately shut for road traffic.
Central Railway (CR) had in May decided to shut the bridge and informed the concerned officials of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and the traffic police. On June 5, the traffic police released a notification on closing the bridge and mentioned that the traffic would be diverted to the parallel new bridge.
As per the traffic police notification, the heavy vehicles coming all the way from Kalyan- Dombivli and moving towards Kalyan phata, Shilphata, Navi Mumbai, JNPT will face no entry at Katai naka and be diverted to Khoni village road to further destinations.
Similarly, vehicles coming from Kalyan phata , Shilphaat ta and moving towards Kalyan, Dombivli, Ulhasnagar will face no entry at Kalyan phata and will be diverted to Taloja road- Khoni village- to further destinations.
The 21-km-long Kalyan-Shilphata route, which connects Kalyan-Dombivli-Bhiwandi-Thane to Navi Mumbai, is a vital link and sees a major congestion during peak hours.
The CR and MSRDC is yet to finalise the plan for repairing the closed bridge or building a new ROB.
“There have been demands to repair the existing bridge and open it soon in order to ease the congestion. The authority is checking on the requirements and will soon decide on it,” said an officer of MSRDC, who did not wish to be named.
