Ground reality of Mumbai’s missing road links

For the past few decades, there have been several plans and announcements on unclogging Mumbai’s traffic snarls. However, most of these plans are yet to see the light of the day. Mumbai March, a citizens’ group has pointed out at least 12 missing links/patches of roads that are marked in the Development Plan of the city on the 120ft (36.6mt) road that runs parallel to Sanjay Gandhi National Park to Aarey and beyond. These links however have been left underdeveloped or blocked on the ground. The road starts from Dahisar check post (old octroi naka) via Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road till Andheri. Mumbai March claims that if developed these missing links will help ease traffic between Dahisar and JVLR. The group has named this patch as Green Link road.

“It’s time we work on unclogging these links, removing encroachments, making parking facilities, work on road networking. Things are already there on paper. We still keep delaying it. This is all due to lack of co-ordination between government agencies and snail pace of work,” said Gopal Jhaveri founder of Mumbai March.

Every day, there is traffic jam on the Western Express Highway (WEH) from Dahisar check post along with Magathane Bridge, near Samta Nagar police station, Pushpa Park and Kurar Village on Malad East, Westin (Goregaon) and after JVLR bridge.

According to DP plans, most of these missing links on the Dahisar check naka to JVLR and beyond stretch have slum encroachments, while a few belong to government agencies like MHADA and Forest department, other are on a private land, waiting to be handed over to BMC. One of the stretches that belonged to Mahindra and Mahindra has been already handed over and work on the same will begin soon.

“Under the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) 2034, we already have plans to construct many missing links. Once the missing links are constructed/ developed, the distance between the spots will be reduced to less than half the present distance. Work on many have begun. We are stuck at some places, still we were working on this aggressively,” said a civic official.