Kharghar Turbhe Link Road will reduce travel time by 30 minutes

CIDCO has decided to construct Kharghar Turbhe Link Road that will include a tunnel through the hills that separate the two regions; the road will reduce the travel time for motorists from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai to Kharghar by 30 minutes

City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has decided to construct Kharghar Turbhe Link Road (KTLR) that will include a tunnel through the hills that separate the two regions.

The Kharghar Turbhe Link Road will reduce travel time by 30 minutes and the distance by 10km. (BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT PHOTO)

The road will reduce the travel time for motorists from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai to Kharghar by 30 minutes.

The CIDCO board that approved the project has sent it to the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) for approval. The estimated ₹1,300Cr project had earlier been planned by MSRDC on a toll model. However, later they suggested that CIDCO take up the project. CIDCO is expected to get the requisite government, environment and other permissions for the project in a year with the actual construction expected to be done in two to three years.

KTLR will start from Turbhe and head to Kharghar via Juinagar cutting through the hills, and will enable motorists from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai to reach Kharghar directly, bypassing the other areas that they now have to take via the Sion-Panvel Highway, Thane-Belapur Road and Palm Beach Road. It will help save the travel time from 40 minutes to 10 minutes with the distance reducing by from the present 15km to just 5km. It will also save fuel and money apart from reducing the load on the Sion-Panvel Highway.

CIDCO vice-chairman and managing director, Sanjay Mukherjee, said, “CIDCO has decided to implement KTLR with elevated or grade-level approaches for direct connectivity between Turbhe and Kharghar International Corporate Park. The road will be of four lanes and 5.49km long, while the tunnel will be of 1.763km. The Detailed Project Report has already been prepared by MSRDC.”

Stressing that the environment norms would be adhered to, Mukherjee said, “This project will need forest, environment and other clearances that we shall obtain before we commence the work. Once the State gives its concurrence, CIDCO will proceed to appoint a design expert for peer review of the DPR, conduct tree census and get other clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forest.”

He expressed that the project would improve the overall connectivity in Navi Mumbai.