Traffic police NOC in, MMRDA can complete SCLR Extn project

MUMBAI: After a couple of slowdowns in its eight-year trajectory, work on the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) extension project is finally expected to gather pace. This week, the Mumbai traffic police finally gave a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to go ahead with the remaining critical element of constructing a curved cable-stayed bridge above the existing Vakola flyover. MMRDA officials said it would take another six months to complete.

MMRDA opened the SCLR, which includes Mumbai’s first double-decker flyover, in April 2014. This connected Kapadia Nagar on CST Road to Amar Mahal Junction on the Eastern Express Highway. After it was thrown open to motorists, planners at MMRDA realised that it was leading to traffic snarls at multiple points, resulting in the need for the elevated extension project.

The construction of the SCLR extension began in 2016 to address traffic congestion at Kapadia Nagar on Kurla’s CST Road and on Hans Burga Marg and the junction of Hans Burga Marg merging with the Western Express Highway at Santacruz. “We wanted to complete the project in 2024 by securing traffic blocks from the Mumbai traffic police, which did not come during the year,” said an MMRDA official.

In 2024, the Lok Sabha and Maharashtra assembly elections paused construction activity on this east-west connectivity project, as the Mumbai traffic police was unwilling to let the work proceed. MMRDA had slated the completion for June 2024 but had to revise the date to March 2025. This has again been rescheduled to June 2025.

From an engineering standpoint, the cable-stayed bridge is the most challenging work in the entire SCLR extension project. The structure is approximately 22 metres higher than the busy road beneath and nine metres over the Vakola flyover. It has a curve of up to 70 degrees. The width is in the range of 10.5 metres to 17.5 metres, with the deck weighing 1,780 tonnes.

“We have already given a No Objection Certificate to MMRDA to continue the work and it has begun,” confirmed Mitesh Ghatte, deputy commissioner of police (Traffic), West Region. Once the bridge is ready, it will carry traffic from Chembur and Kurla to Vile Parle. “It should take us five to six months to complete it,” said a senior MMRDA official.

When the project work was initiated in 2016, the original deadline was 2019. In the absence of achieving this, the project has so far been opened in four phases. The first was in February 2023, a stretch of three km between Kurla and Vakola, the second was a 1.2-km portion between MTNL Junction in BKC and LBS Road while the third was an 1.8-km elevated road from Grand Hyatt Hotel to LBS Road. A year ago, the fourth component, a ramp, was opened near Windsor House, next to BKC’s MMRDA grounds.

The progress of the project was delayed by a couple of challenges: the pandemic-induced lockdown in 2020 and a change in the design of the bridge to the present cable-stayed one.

In 2016, the project’s estimated cost was ₹450 crore, which went up by ₹200 crore to ₹650 crore. MMRDA officials are not ruling out the possibility of a further revision due to repeated delays.