MMRDA plans lifeline roads

Development agency think tank suggests London model as the way out of disasters

With an eye on carving out safest road access for Mumbaikars in times when they face the fury of natural calamities or man-made disasters, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning ‘Life Line Road Plan’ that will form a peripheral triangle of the metro.

Enamoured by the road-design created by Greater London Authority to offer safer highway access across London, the MMRDA planners have for now conceptualised three roads approximately 200km in length.

While two of these life line roads will run vertically across the Mumbai peninsular region right up to mainland suburbs, another will be a horizontal link between western and central suburban ends on the mainland.

Joint Project Director (PR) Dilip Kawathkar said the idea was first mooted at a meeting of the MMRDA’s think tank, which includes its top 12 officials and two expert members.

Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad has given a go-ahead to his subordinates in preparing a blueprint of the project. A team led by MMRDA Chief for Transportation and Communication PRK Murthy has been assigned the chalking out of the plan.

According to one of the MMRDA think tank members, Bharat Yamsanwar, the project should be given impetus as it would help in streamline traffic movement across city.

K Vijaya Laxmi, senior transport planner also in the MMRDA’s planning team, said the team has identified three corridors for the proposed life lines, with the first of them being a nearly 60km stretch between Nariman Point and Vasai via Worli and Bandra, the second a 65km long connecting proposed Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link and Karjat via Mumbai-Pune
Expressway, and third 60km long outer ring road connecting Karjat to Vasai-Virar.

“The idea is to create a safer peripheral access and is a part of the masterplan that addresses disaster threats,” said Vijaya Laxmi pointing out that a comprehensive transportation study had been carried out to develop these peripheral roads as an alternative the outer ring road network. The project cost was being worked out, she added.