WORLI WORRIES for SEA-LINK USERS
City-Bound Vehicles Will Hit Worli Speedbreaker After Zipping Down Bandra-Worli Sea-Link, Fear Traffic Experts …………Chittaranjan Tembhekar | TNN
Mumbai: The Bandra-Worli Sea-Link looks all set to be commissioned on schedule, by 31 January next year, but dont look forward to cutting down travel time between the island city and the western suburbs by too much. For, you may zip down from Bandra to Worli at a speed more than the local trains but will hit the mother of all speedbreakers once the sea-link disgorges you at Worli.
The plans to give you a smooth drive after you have got off the sea-link on the Worli end have gone for a six. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation has been planning to commission two steel decks assembled flyovers for cars near Pratiksha (where the sea-link hits Khan Abdul Ghaffar Road) and at the Thadani Junction (where the road from Worli Naka meets KAGK Road) but officials say they do not look like happening any time soon. The decks, which would have helped south-bound cars get off the sea-link and northbound cars get on to the link, have to wait for clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests.
So, in the absence of these two assembled flyovers, southbound cars headed for the island city will first have to travel north for a couple of k i l o m e t re s and then turn south via Love Grove Junction and Atria Mall. Besides the obvious detour, cars from the sealink will have to compete with others for space on the roads that will be narrower than the sea-link.
Officials now feel the detour will end up making a mockery of the whole purpose behind the Bandra-Worli Sea-Link.
It is not that MSRDC officials do not know what they are up against. They have worked out an alternative plan involving creating a rotary at the turn that leads to Love Grove Junction, narrowing the garden under the flyover to widen the road and decimating the footpath near Atria for the same purpose but experts say you should not expect the alternative plan to make as much of a difference as the original plan. Officials say you will then have to wait for the completion of the Western Free Way between Worli and Nariman Point via Haji ali for a smooth drive between the island city and the western suburbs.
The MSRDC has thought of another solution create a branch of the existing flyover at Love Grove Junction but this may add to the problems; this solution will force civic and traffic authorities to instal an extra signal on the flyover and ensure that traffic cops are present round-the-clock.
Its a fundamental error and a mess is inevitable. Our planners are responsible and they show no accountability in planning, traffic expert Ashok Datar said, terming the solution of creating an offshoot from the existing flyover at Love Grove short-term.
Residents of the area, too, are apprehensive of whats in store. Courier agency proprietor Bijendu Ghosh recalled how a bus, waiting for less than two minutes in front of Atria, was enough to cause a huge jam on the narrow road recently. Another resident of the area, Vinay Shinde, said such scenes were already common during peak hours without any help from the sea-link.
WHATS RIGHT AT BANDRA
The Bandra-Worli Sea-Link meets the road that goes directly to Western Express Highway and also connects to S V Road; these are the two most important roads that link the city and the western suburbs.
This link is an eight-lane affair and can carry all the load that will come from Worli to Bandra, say traffic experts.
The link also gives you a host of other options; you can go down to the Mahim Causeway, travel to Bandra-Kurla Complex or, alternatively, take Sion Road, besides Western Express Highway and S V Road.
Another road will take you down to Bandra Reclamation.
WHATS WRONG AT WORLI
The traffic-flow plans are extremely complicated; southbound cars will have to first head northward to Love Grove Junction, from where they will
turn towards the road in front of Atria Mall to continue the southward journey.
PLANS IN LIMBO
Planners hope to build two steel decks at a cost of Rs 6 crore to help make the southward journey less complicated.