The Eastern Freeway will become the second project in Mumbai to have seismic arresters, to withstand earthquakes measuring above seven on the Richter scale, when it gets inaugurated on May 1.
“The first project to have seismic arresters is Bandra Worli Sea Link,” said Sharad Sabnis, chief engineer, MMRDA. “Seismic arresters aren’t for flyovers because they shorter. Since this is a freeway, there is need to have some kind of feature to minimise damage to the structure during an earthquake,” informed Ashwini Bhide, additional metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA. Bandra Worli Sea Link has been designed to bear jolts upto 8 on Richter Scale as compared to 7.5 for the Eastern Freeway.
Henceforth, it has become mandatory for all future projects to have such arresters, irrespective of their size.
Saturday was an important day for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) as well as for the Eastern Freeway project, as it achieved two important tasks — the launch of the last segment between Orange Gate and Anik, and day light for the second tunnel at Panjrapol.
In all, 313 segments have been launched and in the next month, black topping and other finishing touches will be given to the 9.2km long stretch.
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