During the last year, motorists travelling on Western Urban Road (earlier known as Western Express Highway) were witness to metro rail barricading and pillars. Today onwards, Mumbaikars will also get to see girders connecting those pillars, but will have to continue to bear changes in traffic routes.
On the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday, the first 'U' girder, a concrete structure on which metro tracks are laid will be installed on the Dahisar East-Andheri East Metro-7 corridor. The launch of 'U' girder will take place near Pathanwadi Junction in Malad.
For this, north bound lanes on Western Urban Road will be shut during the night. "On Tuesday-Wednesday night, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will be part of the programme to launch the first girder, traffic will be curbed between 10 pm to 5 am. On other nights, starting Wednesday, north bound lanes will be out of bounds for motorists between midnight to 5 am," said an official.
During the duration of traffic restriction, Traffic Police officials will ask north bound motorists to either drive on SV Road or Link Road. Additionally, one lane (north) on the Western Urban Road too will be kept open for traffic movement at night.Depending on the location of 'U' girder, the area will change every night.
Analysis
Within 8 months, substantial progress has been made. Launching the ‘U’ girder only means faster construction pace and hopes for the project to meet its March 2019 deadline. Unless any petition is filed during the rehabilitation process of project affected persons or any unforeseen hurdles.
