14.4.14

SCLR set to open



Under construction for nearly a decade , the 6.5-km long Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR), which will provide crucial east-west connectivity, will finally be open for motorists by this week.
The city’s development body will simultaneously throw open the Amar Mahal Junction flyover on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) to avoid traffic snarls when motorists access SCLR.
“Amar Mahal Junction, one of the busiest junctions on EEH as it connects five arterial roads, is set to be congestion free. We will throw open the SCLR and Amar Mahal Junction flyover this week to ease commute for lakhs of motorists,” said a senior MMRDA official on Sunday.
Motorists using the SCLR will save at least 30 minutes of travel time between the eastern and western suburbs.
“The SCLR will help motorists travel from Santa Cruz to Chembur and vice versa in just 15-20 minutes,” said MMRDA spokesperson Dilip Kawathkar.
MMRDA officials said that while work on the SCLR is complete, the Amar Mahal Junction flyover will be ready tentatively by Thursday. So, both the SCLR and the flyover could be thrown open for traffic either on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, they added. There will be no official inauguration or ribbon-cutting due to the election code of conduct.
The SCLR comprises a double-decker flyover, the first of its kind in India, with the top deck catering to traffic between Amar Mahal Junction on EEH and Vakola Junction on the Western Express Highway (WEH) via Kalina. The lower deck will provide connectivity between Lokmanya Tilak Terminus and Kurla Dairy in Nehru Nagar on EEH to Kalina on the WEH.
Planned in September 2003 under the World Bank funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project, work on the SCLR began in 2007. It missed 12 deadlines due to rehabilitation and resettlement-related work.

The six-lane Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road, the country’s first double-decker flyover, will provide crucial east-west connectivity by linking the Western Express Highway and Eastern Express Highway How it will help
Access provided at Amar Mahal Junction, LTT, Kurla (E) and Kalina on CST Road It will help reduce traffic at Santa Cruz, Kalanagar, Dharavi, Sion, Chembur and Ghatkopar
Motorists will save at least 30 minutes when using the SCLR as it will take just 15-20 minutes to travel between Santa Cruz and Chembur. At present, it takes 60-90 minutes to through a detour route via Sion-Dharavi

The MMRDA also announced that monorail services between Wadala depot and Chembur will be extended to 14 hours—from 6 am to 8 pm—from Tuesday. “The monorail will now run from 6 am to 8 pm at a frequency of 15 minutes,” said Dilip Kawathkar, MMRDA joint project director. Since February 2, when the monorail was thrown open to the public, it has been running from 7 am to 3 pm at a frequency of 15 minutes. “We extended the timings to cater to the peak hour traffic,” said Kawathkar. Extending the timings will also result in increasing the number of monorail services per day from 64 to 112.

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