Eastern Freeway is completed

Road travel on Mumbai's eastern flank is set to become much less painful with the Eastern Freeway's last leg opening on Monday , reducing the average commute time between Ghatkopar and south Mumbai to a mere 25 minutes.
Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan will inaugurate the arterial road's final 2.8 km stretch from Panjarpol in Chembur to Ghatkopar Link Road on Monday afternoon. The ceremony will finally complete the 16.59 kmlong route from Orange Gate in south Mumbai to Ghatkopar, which took 7 years and Rs.1,463 crore to build.
Besides benefiting the residents of the areas falling along its route, such as Sion, Chembur and Ghatkopar, it will help those coming to south Mumbai from Thane, Kalyan, Dombivli and beyond. Officials estimate the Freeway will now get a lakh motorists daily as against the 22,000 it got thus far. They also predict a big reduction in the congestion at Dadar, Sion, Chembur, Kurla and Mankhurd. “The Panjarpol-Ghatkopar Link Road leg means the completion of the Eastern Freeway ,“ said MMRDA's joint project director (PR) Dilip Kawathkar. “It now provides unhindered connectivity from south Mumbai to the eastern suburbs.“
Before the Eastern Freeway, travelling by road from Ghatkopar to SoBo could take anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2 hours, depending on the traffic. Jams were common at Ghatkopar, Chembur, Sion, Matunga and Dadar. When the Freeway's first phase from Orange Gate on P D'Mello Road to Panjarpol was thrown open to the public in June 2013, the traffic situation improved in Sion, Matunga and Dadar. Now, following the last leg's completion, the snarl-ups in Ghatkopar and Chembur are bound to decrease.
The first stretch of the Eastern Freeway--from Orange Gate to Anik (9.29 km)--was built as an elevated corridor and the next--till Shivaji Chowk in Chembur (4.3 km) --at ground level. The final Panjarpol-Ghatkopar leg is also an elevated road and has been constructed at a height of 22 metres, making it the tallest bridge point in Mumbai.
The MMRDA opened the north and south-bound ramps connecting Anik Wadala Road to the Eastern Freeway in April this year. The bridges across Mahul creek were completed thereafter. The MMRDA has installed road signage to lead motorists to the ramps.