Peddar Road flyover set to straddle all objections

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has decided to go ahead with the construction of the controversial 4.2km Peddar Road flyover with slight modifications that do away with the need for environmental clearance.

The project, which was conceived nearly a decade-and-a-half ago, was put on the back burner because of stiff opposition from Peddar Road residents, including celebrities such as Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.

“The MSRDC board has cleared the proposal,” a senior MSRDC official told DNA. The authority will seek to withdraw its application for permission for the project sought from the ministry of environment and forests earlier. The official said tenders will be floated as soon as the environment ministry gives its nod for withdrawal.

The flyover will begin from near the Haji Ali junction and end at Tambe Chowk near Wilson college. Under the new plan, the flyover, which the MSRDC claims will ease traffic between South Mumbai and the suburbs, will follow the existing alignment of the road. Its piers will not encroach on Chowpatty as proposed earlier. “This will do away with the need for CRZ clearances,” the official said.

The Kemps Corner flyover will be demolished to make way for the new one. “The Peddar Road flyover will be constructed in 18 months once construction starts. Once the flyover is ready, noise and vision barriers will be put up to ensure local residents are not inconvenienced because of the traffic. We will ensure that it becomes a signature structure. We will treat it well architecturally,” he said.

Work on the four-lane, Rs320 crore project will be undertaken on a cash-contract basis. The flyover will be a steel construction which will help set it up faster, the official said. He, however, admitted that the change in plan was likely to lead to a sharp turn for motorists towards Chowpatty.

The Peddar Road flyover project has been one of the most delayed projects in the city. There were questions raised over its feasibility because of the proposed coastal road plan. The state government had earlier asked MSRDC to look at the feasibility of constructing two small flyovers on the stretch instead of one bridge. However, the official said that would not help solve the problem of traffic congestion, but shift the bottlenecks to another junction. 

Last year after Mumbai guardian minister Jayant Patil was quoted in a regional paper as saying that the Peddar Road flyover project may be called off, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray censured Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle without naming them. “The flyover is for the benefit of Indians, not for the people of Dubai,” he said in response to Bhosle’s threat some years ago that she would migrate to Dubai if the flyover was built. His comments led to a political war with the MNS chief’s estranged cousin, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, slamming Raj for criticising legends.