Eight lanes on bypass highway open for public use at Chandni Chowk stretch

According to the information shared by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), work in front of the Shrungeri math is complete while work on ramp number 6 from Bavdhan towards Satara will be complete in the next one-and-a-half months

It’s been three weeks since the demolition of the old bridge at Chandni chowk and eight lanes on the bypass highway are now open for vehicular movement, including five lanes from Mumbai to Satara and three lanes from Satara to Mumbai. Whereas work on increasing the number of lanes on the bypass highway is going on in full swing, with the rocks on both sides of the demolished bridge still being removed even as service road works are almost complete.

The service road from Kothrud-Warje to Satara is now being connected to the bypass highway. (HT FILE PHOTO)

According to the information shared by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), work in front of the Shrungeri math is complete while work on ramp number 6 from Bavdhan towards Satara will be complete in the next one-and-a-half months. The service road from Kothrud-Warje to Satara is now being connected to the bypass highway.

“The work of blasting and removing the side rocks at the chowk is still going on. Till now, we have been able to start five lanes from Mumbai to Satara and three lanes from Satara to Mumbai so in all eight lanes for public use. The existing four-lane bypass highway is being turned into a six-lane highway and for that, the work on the retaining walls and filling of mud is 80% complete. While we are trying to complete the rest of the work in the next 15 days,” said Sanjay Kadam, NHAI Pune project director.

Just last week, the Bombay high court (HC) gave its nod for land acquisition at Chandni chowk for construction of the road ramp from Mulshi towards Mumbai. The Pune district administration and NHAI officials claim that the acquisition process will be carried out within one month. Apart from that, the work on the new bridge from Mulshi towards Bavdhan and Pashan will start next month. Whereas, four pillars for this new bridge will come up at the service road and it is expected that by the end of next year, the new bridge will be completed.

After over a month’s pre-demolition work, at 1 am on October 2, the old bridge at Chandni chowk was demolished by the NHAI through the private agency ‘Edifice Engineering’ which carried out the blast through the ‘controlled blasting’ method. Whereas even after the blast, the side rocks of the bridge remained due to which several small blasts had to be carried out for which blocks of a few hours were taken on the highway in the last one week. Keeping in mind the inconvenience caused to citizens, it was decided to take a half-an-hour block every night from 12.30 am to 1 am from October 10 till such time the work is completed.