After 5-year wait, you can now fly over Suman Nagar

MMRDA officials to throw open the 502-m long flyover to public today even though the Chief Minister will not be available for the inauguration

MMRDA officials to throw open the 502-m long flyover to public today even though the Chief Minister will not be available for the inauguration

After facing flak for delayed projects, officials from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) are finally opening the much-awaited Suman Nagar flyover at Chembur, today at 3 pm after a five-year wait.


Zip, zap, zoom: The Suman Nagar flyover will allow motorists travelling
from Navi Mumbai to bypass the bottlenecks along the Sion-Chembur
belt making travel a lot easier. Pics/Shadab Khan

The 502-metre long flyover that was initially supposed to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will be open to the public even though the CM is unable to make it for the opening.

Sources said that the CM was unable to make time for the launch of the flyoveru00a0-- that would enable commuters from Navi Mumbai, Pune or Konkan region bypass bottlenecks along the Sion-Chembur beltu00a0-- owing to some work for the forthcoming BMC elections in February 2012. Rahul Asthana, commissioner, MMRDA, confirmed and said, "The CM was busy and so he has asked us to start the flyover for public use from tomorrow."

The Rs 25 crore flyover was to be thrown open to the public in October, but realising their mistakes on the King Circle flyover and Lalbaug flyover officials pushed back the launch to ensure that the opening would be incident free.

The Suman Nagar Junction in Chembur is one of the major choking points that has been a headache not only for the commuters in Chembur but also foru00a0 motorists travelling from south Mumbai towards Navi Mumbai via VN Purav marg because of the heavy traffic.

More than 2 lakh vehicles pass this important junction in a day and nearly 7,000 vehicles ply in an hour.

Sources add that at one point of time the contractor threatened to quit the project owing to the constant delays. The actual work on the flyover started in November 2005 and at that time the estimated cost of the project was Rs 16.65 crore.

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