Mumbai: Bandra citizens want realignment of Versova sea link

To help avoid the lsquomistakesrsquo made by the authorities during the construction of the BandraWorli Sea Link residents of Bandra have submitted a realignment plan for the upcoming BandraVersova Sea Link After Congress Corporator from Bandra Asif Zakaria had spoken about the concerns of the residents they submitted a realignment plan to him and want it to be taken to the authoritiesThe realignment includes two exits instead of three from the sea link in the official plan and will be cost effective and could help easy management of traffic instead of the congestion and bottlenecks that could be created due to the current plan claim citizensThe current VBSL plan with one exit at Bandra one at Juhu and the third at VersovaThe BandraVersova Sea Link BVSL will be 177 km long However residents of Bandra are not pleased with the lack of planning for the traffic congestion that is likely apart from the Carter Road promenade being divided into two So local urban planners have drawn their own alignment of the sea linkWhat citizens fearAccording to the official design of the alignment one exit is at Otterrsquos Club which in future will create a major traffic bottleneck at Carter Road fear citizens Further this is planned too close to the existing exit at Reclamation Likewise the Juhu connector which exits over a nullah leads to a roundabout at Juhu Koliwada and will cause further traffic congestion and this can be easily avoided by realigning two exits and just having one exit at Khar danda from where one can connect to Bandra Khar and JuhuThe plan submitted by local urban planners to the corporator for the authorities has one exit at Khar danda and the other at VersovaUrban designer architect and one of the Bandra locals who prepared the plan Alan Abraham said ldquoWe need to learn from our previous mistakes By placing the exits from the sea link correctly we cannot just improve connectivity within the city but the route will be shorter and therefore cheaper to construct It will also be better because traffic will be more evenly distributed within the city This will give us an uninterrupted beach of seven and a half kilometres and an uninterrupted Carter Road promenaderdquoAll this is being considered owing to the traffic snarls that are caused near Bandra end of the BWSL and even at the Worli end as the promenade had to be interrupted for the exit Hence citizens donrsquot the design to be constructed However the corporator feels there should be a dialogue with all the stakeholders and the citizens when such mega projects worth thousands of crores of rupees are planned He also feels the citizens should be heard and their opinions and alternatives should be explored ldquoThe issue was brought up when the construction work at Bandra and Juhu ends began but it is still in a very primitive stage and if the options are considered then the feasibility can be checkedrdquo said ZakarialsquoCheck citizensrsquo alternativersquoZakaria who had approached the MSRDC earlier this month due to the fears of the citizens said ldquoThe citizens have taken the initiative and designed an alternative I wonrsquot say whether the alternative is correct but as it is available the authorities should explore it They should check if the exit at danda is even possible or not and if not why not so that the citizens know that the options were studied and the authorities are open to communicate When such huge projects are involved all stakeholders should be consulted heard and work should not be started without taking the locals into confidencerdquoRs 1133282 CRTotal cost of construction of BandraVersova sea link including clearances connectors etc