Mumbai's Eastern Freeway update

The Eastern Freeway, which will connect the island city with Chembur, is likely to be completed almost a year before the scheduled date. Work on the 16-km road started in June 2008 and it was given a timeframe of 36 months. “There are not too many impediments in construction and we feel that the work may finish in the second half of 2010,’’ said Milind Mhaiskar, additional commissioner of MMRDA. Apart from connecting the eastern suburbs with the island city, the Eastern Freeway will also act as a dispersal system for the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), connecting Sewri with Nhava. Though the Mumbai Port Trust agreed to give land in 2007, the commencement of the work took some time as MbPT authorities were a little sceptical about the space left for their trailers which come to the port. At present, the MMRDA has started installing pillars on the ferry wharf side. The project is funded under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The plan was initially slated to cost Rs 340 crore and due to an escalation of costs, it could cost around Rs 531 crore. “Unlike the construction of other bridges and roads, which is hindered by heavy traffic, things are easier here as the traffic load is less,’’ a senior MMRDA official said. “In fact, vehicles moving towards the eastern suburbs will have smoother exits—one through BA Road which will have new flyovers and the second via the Anik Panjrapole road and the Eastern Freeway,’’ said Mhaiskar. “It will be a much faster ride towards Panvel and Navi Mumbai as the work on the 5-km Anik Panjrapole road has gained in momentum. A patch of land was handed over by the BMC to the MMRDA recently. This road will be completed by mid-2010,’’ said S Nandgirikar, chief engineer of the MMRDA. The Anik-Panjrapole road also has a 300-mt tunnel. The Eastern Freeway will also be the longest elevated road in the city. Nearly 8.9 km of this road will be elevated and one can travel from Colaba to Panjrapole in just 20-25 minutes. Mhaiskar said that while travelling to Pune via the proposed MTHL, a person will enter the Mumbai Pune Expressway at a village called Chirle near Nhava. This will speed up the journey for south Mumbai residents via the Eastern Freeway, MTHL and then the expressway to Pune, thereby saving more than one hour of travel time.