Flyover to ease Kala Nagar's traffic woes

The proposed 800-m road over bridge will help motorists bypass the busy junction and get to the Western Express Highway from the Bandra-Kurla Link Road

IF the MMRDA has its way, the traffic bottleneck at the Kala Nagar junction in Bandra (East) may soon be a thing of the past.


Officials said that the costly project was necessitated by the rapid growth of the Bandra-Kurla Complex, and because motorists from Kurla and Kalina have been increasingly using the Bandra-Kurla Link Road

The agency has decided to build a 800-metre flyover that will start from the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and merge with the south-bound lanes (heading towards Mahim) of the Western Express Highway. A ramp will connect the north-bound lanes of the highway with the flyover.

Speaking to MiD DAY, MMRDA Chief Engineer S Nandargikar said, "The traffic at Kalanagar Junction is increasing, and the only solution to this problem is the construction of a flyover with two lanes on each side that will make the flow of traffic, from BKC towards Mahim faster and smoother."

Nandargikar said the Rs 40-crore project was necessitated by the rapid growth of BKC and because the MMRDA is anticipating a further increase in traffic because of motorists from Kurla and Kalina increasingly using the Bandra-Kurla Link Road

Rush-hour chaos
The Kala Nagar junction witnesses very high traffic density during peak hours as motorists from the western suburbs heading for BKC, Eastern Express Highway (EEH), Sion, Dharavi and CST via Dr Ambedkar Road take a left from there and use the Sion-Bandra Link Road.

"To ease the bottleneck, the proposed flyover will start opposite the Maker Maxity building on the Bandra-Kurla Link road. It will pass over the BKC junction traffic signal and run parallel to the Sion-Bandra Link Road towards Kala Nagar junction.
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It will then pass over the Public Works Departmentu00a0 office and run parallel to the Mithi River, before finally merging with the WEH," said an MMRDA official on condition of anonymity.

Uphill task
The flyover's construction will pose several problems for the MMRDA. The agency will have to acquire a portion of PWD land and also take clearance from the environment ministry as the Mithi river flows just a few meters away from the proposed flyover.

In a recent meeting, some senior MMRDA officials also opposed the flyover because of the possibility of its alignment clashing with the proposed Metro and the skywalk at Kala Nagar junction.

Nandargikar, however, said, "The flyover has been planned in such a way that it will not overlap with the Metro or the skywalk."

Rs 40 cr
Amount alloted for the project