Mumbai: 1 month after being opened up, Ghatkopar-Mankhurd flyover shut for work

One month after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray gave green light to the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd flyover, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to undertake maintenance work, owing to which, traffic is expected to be disrupted

One month after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray gave green light to the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd flyover, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to undertake maintenance work, owing to which, traffic is expected to be disrupted. The BMC has also decided to install CCTV cameras, additional speed bumps and rumblers and making the surface rough.

Traffic on the newly-constructed Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road flyover stopped on Wednesday. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

This comes after an uproar over several accidents on the flyover including the death of a 34-year-old biker Yusuf Khan, who slipped and lost his life on Monday. In the absence of this flyover, those heading to Navi Mumbai and further along with those heading to south Mumbai and eastern suburbs will have to use the Ghatkopar Mankhurd Link Road, which will result in traffic jams.

The flyover was inaugurated by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on August 1. Following this, on August 4, BJP corporator wrote a letter to mayor Kishori Pednekar and municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, pointing at the poor quality of construction work by the contractor. Thackeray on the day of the inauguration had also asked the BMC officials to make the surface of the flyover smooth.

On Wednesday, however, the BMC started the maintenance work of making the surface smooth by keeping one lane between Ghatkopar and Mankhurd shut. According to BMC officials, they will install CCTV cameras, speed bumpers on both sides of the road, undertake milling works of the road will be carried out in a bid to make the flyover surface rough along with rumbler strips also being placed.

The Mumbai Traffic Police maintained that maintenance work will be carried out by the BMC for 10 days. Kishore Shinde, senior inspector of the Mankhurd traffic police division said, ‘The plan is to carry out work for five days each on one side at a time. Currently, it is being carried out on Ghatkopar to the Mankhurd stretch. After five days, it will be carried out on the Mankhurd to Ghatkopar stretch.”

However, the BMC did not clarify what will be the timings of keeping the flyover shut for repairs. P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner of the BMC said, “The plan is to undertake work in non-peak hours.”

The BMC further said that though the movement of light vehicles is allowed, the flyover after maintenance will continue to remain shut for heavy vehicles due to the presence of high-tension cables overhead. The BMC expects that these cables will be shifted in the coming months’ post which movement of heavy vehicles will also be allowed.

Meanwhile, the 2.9-km flyover, constructed for ₹713 crore by the BMC, was opened on August 1, three years after its deadline. The flyover has helped cut travel time for motorists heading towards Navi Mumbai from Ghatkopar as the link road has heavy traffic on the entire stretch, especially at Baiganwadi Junction in Shivaji Nagar.