Revamped Sion-Panvel highway to be ready by May

The public works department (PWD) has set a deadline of May 2020 to complete the concretisation work on Sion-Panvel highway. The work began in October last year

The public works department (PWD) has set a deadline of May 2020 to complete the concretisation work on Sion-Panvel highway. The work began in October last year but was stalled with the onset of monsoon. Kishore Patil, executive engineer of PWD, said, “The concretisation work has resumed. We have started work at Sanpada. Necessary permissions from the traffic department have been taken and we aim to complete all pending work by May.”

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The traffic police are prepared for congestion. Sunil Lokhande, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) traffic, said, “The permission to concretise lane by blocking one lane has been given so that minimum traffic is affected. Traffic diversions will be planned depending on the work.” PWD is yet to concretise two lanes at Vashi, Kharghar, Belapur, Nerul and Uran. The concretisation work will be carried out phase-wise.

The work at Sanpada started two weeks ago. It takes one month to concretise one lane. The ongoing work at Sanpada has slowed down traffic, affecting regular office-goers. Subodh Mali, 45, a regular commuter who travels to Kurla every day, said, “Work has started at Vashi bridge and at Sanpada. We get late for office every day. Last weekend, I was stuck at Vashi for 45 minutes because of the ongoing work.”

The 19-km Sion-Panvel Highway passes through Sanpada, Nerul, Belapur, Juinagar, Kalamboli and Panvel. A total of 4km of the highway will be concretised. PWD officials claimed that a major chunk of the work is complete. Commuters are happy that work started but are worried about traffic jams. “We had a tough time during monsoon on some stretches on the highway. We hope the authorities will stick to the deadline,” said Ravindra Ahuja, 37, a resident of Juinagar who travels to Chembur every day.