07 April,2011 06:48 AM IST | | Ranjeet Jadhav
Service road near Milan Subway has been dug up, choking the already clogged highway between Santacruz and Vile Parle
DRIVING through the Western Express Highway (WEH) between Santacruz and Vile Parle, a harrowing task even on an ordinary day, has become even more of a nightmare for motorists in the past fortnight.
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Construction of the flyover over Milan Subway has led to the service road leading to it being dug-up, leaving the choked highway to shoulder the burden of additional traffic.
Traffic jam on the Western Express Highway between Bandra and Vile Parle yesterday
Dheeraj Bhatia (27), a Lokhandwala resident, said, "It takes me more than an hour to travel from Vakola junction to domestic Airport junction these days.
My journey has been made even more miserable than before."
Echoing his views, Amay Sawant (34) from Juhu said, "The north-bound service road has also been dug up, which makes it very difficult for motorists to travel during peak hours. I tried taking the highway but gave up after two days. Now I take the SV Road."
Senior Police Inspector (traffic) D B Bagayatkar from Vakola said, "The PWD has already taken permission from us to start work on the WEH.
But we have asked them to carry out work on the north-bound road after 11 pm as traffic flow is very high between 5 and 10 pm. The traffic situation between Bandra and Dahisar will improve once the work is complete."
No respite
Compounding this problem is the fact that the Rs 40-crore flyover will, in all likelihood, overshoot its May deadline by a huge margin.
At present, it takes around an hour to cross the subway during rush hours, but the delay in completing the flyover will literally push the commuters knee-deep in trouble during the rainy season.
Officials say the project, which promises to cut commuting time to barely 4 minutes from an hour, will be completed only in September. Its early completion becomes more crucial as Milan Subway is the only route connecting Santacruz east and west.
Confirming the delay, MMRDA's joint project director Dilip Kawatkar said, "It is true that the project will get delayed by a month or so.
But we have sped up the work now as we have received all necessary permissions from the railways. Traffic flow is also getting affected because of ongoing repairing and maintenance work on the Western Express Highway."
50,000
Approximate number of vehicles that ply on the Western Express Highway every day
30,000
Approximate number of vehicles using the highway between 6 pm and 10 pm
