Virar-Alibaug corridor snippets

Once the Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor is ready, Mumbai can hope to cut down on traffic snarls, air pollution as well as the constant roaring and honking of heavy vehicles. The road-and-rail route, which is estimated to cost around Rs 10,000 crore, will connect several national highways, allowing trucks headed for other states to reach their destinations without even entering Mumbai. According to additional metropolitan commissioner S Srinivas, the new road, when commissioned,will keep around 12,000 to 15,000 trucks from entering the city. He added that the Virar-Alibaug road-and-rail corridor would be unique with utilities like gas, water and power lines running along it. This will facilitate the growth of townships along the corridor, Srinivas added. An official of the MMRDA, which is the implementing authority, said the project would come up in the next five years, providing a direct route from Virar to Alibaug, a distance of over 80 km. The route, which will go semi-circular, will pass through important towns of Virar, Vasai, Diva, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Panvel and end in Alibaug. The highways that will join the corridor are NH 8, coming from Gujarat, NH3 that goes to Delhi and Agra, NH4 that is connected to Pune and Chennai and NH 17, which leads to Goa, Mangalore and Kerala. There is also the old Mumbai Pune Highway, the new Mumbai Pune Expressway as well as the Jawarharlal Nehru Port Road that is connected to the multimodal stretch. MMRDA joint project director Dilip Kawathkar said the MMRDA had asked for an expression of interest from firms keen on preparing a techno-feasibility study of the project. Several globals firms have come forward like Lea and Associates and Halcrow. Kawathkar said “The MMRDA will finalise the consultant in two months, following which, the survey for the work will begin.’’