MSRDC’s 6km road between Juinagar and Kharghar kept on hold

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation’s (MSRDC) plans of developing a 6km road between Juinagar and Kharghar below the Kharghar Hills to reduce the travel time between these two places have been put on hold due to lack of funds.

According to the MSRDC’s plan, a 1.8km-long tunnel would be developed under the Kharghar Hills. Then, a 2.5km-long elevated road would connect the Western end of the tunnel with the Sion-Panvel Highway outside Juinagar railway station.

Likewise, another 1.7km-long elevated road would connect the Eastern end of the tunnel with the road outside Central Park in Kharghar. The estimated budget for the project is ₹1,300Cr.

Presently, it takes almost 40 minutes to reach Juinagar from Kharghar and its adjacent Taloja. If this plan is executed, a motorist would be able to reach Juinagar from the other side in less than 10 minutes. This will also reduce the traffic congestions on the Sion-Panvel highway to a great extent.

A senior MSRDC officer said, “After conducting multiple surveys on either side of the hills, we prepared a detailed project report of the proposed road last year. However, we got stuck when it came to execution.

“CIDCO has developed the entire area of Kharghar and its peripheries. Similarly, a major part of the proposed road (on the Western side) will run through an area that falls in the jurisdiction of MIDC. Therefore, we requested CIDCO and MIDC to contribute ₹300Cr and ₹150Cr, respectively, for the project. We were ready to contribute ₹150Cr from our side. We planned to loan the remaining ₹700Cr and to recover that amount from the motorists later by collecting tolls. However, both CIDCO and MIDC informed us that they were unable to pay the said amounts at the moment. As we cannot execute this ambitious project on our own, we have kept it on hold for now. If we receive positive responses from the other two agencies in the near future, we will rework on it.”

While CIDCO officials were unavailable for comments, an MIDC officer from Navi Mumbai confirmed the developments. However, he refused to explain the reasons behind their inability to pay the amount.

The local residents say that if executed, the proposed road would leave a direct impact on the business and economy of Kharghar as well as Taloja. It would also boost the real estate market of those places, they said.

Kaveri Sharma, a 41-year-old resident of Kharghar, said, “Presently, we have to tackle severe traffic jams on Sion-Panvel Highway while traveling to Juinagar and Vashi. It takes almost one hour to reach Juinagar if we travel during the peak hours. That problem will not be there if the authorities develop this road.”