Chunabhatti to BKC

Sion-Dharavi Link Road

vehicular pollution

Western Express Highway

AT THE STARTING POINT Yogesh Naik (riding pillion) and Sharmeen Hakim at the BKC connector’s entry point at Chunabhatti

Eastern Express Highway

MMRDA Building

Untitled Carousel Mumbai: Massive traffic congestion at JVLR, commuters stuck for hours Traffic Alert: Mumbaikars on Wednesday morning witnessed a heavy traffic jam after a container truck got stuck on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR). According to preliminary information received, the container truck crashed at the Metro work site at around 2 am. Massive traffic was reported all the way from Powai IIT till the Seepz flyover, Andheri Kurla road, inconveniencing Mumbaikars with a minimum of an hour's traffic jam on the road. BEST took to Twitter to inform commuters at around 1 pm that the road has been cleared and there was smooth movement of traffic along the stretch.

NO PRIZES FOR GUESSING WHO’S RIDING EASY Sharmeen navigates the traffic in Sion while Yogesh is having a smooth ride

Santacruz-Chembur Link Road

NO ESCAPING THE SION CHAOS Sharmeen continues to struggle in Sion while Yogesh has reached the other end of the connector at BKC

2.35 MINUTES vs 26 MINUTES Yogesh reached BKC in two minutes, 35 seconds while it took Sharmeen 26 minutes to reach there

BKC-Chunabhatti connector

Photos by Satyajit Desai and Sachin Haralkar

2.35 minutes fromusing the connector; 26 minutes via. The connector likely to be opened next month.The very mention of “Sion traffic” sends shivers down the spine of Mumbaikars, who on an average end up spending up to 45 minutes to cover barely five km on Sion-Dharavi Link Road. Incessant honking,, arguments with other drivers and the resultant blood pressure spike that comes along with a ride to the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and thefrom the eastern suburbs will soon turn into a four or five-minute zip via the BKC-Chunabhatti elevated connector.Two Mirror correspondents yesterday conducted a test drive to experience firsthand the relief that the connector will provide to the city. Yogesh Naik rode a bike on the 1.6-km elevated connector while Sharmeen Hakim used the old Sion-Dharavi Link Road.Yogesh and Sharmeen started from the connector’s access point at Chunabhatti -- near Somaiya Ground off– and proceeded towards their destination at G Block nearat BKC, the connector’s other access point.They started just past 5 pm. Yogesh reached BKC in two minutes, 35 seconds, while it took Sharmeen 26 minutes to cover a distance of 5.5 km from Chunabhatti to BKC. Sharmeen managed to cover the distance within 30 minutes because she was riding a twowheeler; cars will easily take up to 45 minutes to navigate the journey from Chunabhatti to BKC.Also, had Yogesh and Sharmeen started around 6.30 pm when traffic is at its worst along the stretch, Sharmeen would have probably taken nearly an hour to cover the distance.Both Yogesh and Sharmeen reported that the connector’s access point at Chunabhatti was spacious enough to ensure there will be no bottleneck but the narrow roads at BKC could create some difficulty for the vehicles to access the connector.Yogesh reported that even after the elevated connector is thrown open to public, the travel time from Chunabhatti to BKC will not be more than five to seven minutes in peak traffic. “This is because there are no signals along the elevated connector and the access area at Chunabhatti is large enough to avoid bottlenecks,” he said.“The connector will ease congestion on the Sion-Dharavi Link Road,, and on the Eastern Express Highway stretch between Sion and Kurla. These are some of the worst traffic bottleneck spots in the city, with vehicle speed at times being reduced to less than five kmph,” he said.Sharmeen, an experienced biker, said that she encountered at least six signals from Chunabhatti to BKC, including three on the Sion-Dharavi stretch alone. “There’s a traffic signal as soon as one takes a left from Eastern Express Highway to enter Sion. The roads too are not in good condition, at least till one reaches the 90-ft Road that goes towards Kalanagar Junction. At times the bike’s speed was reduced to just 20 kmph,” she said.Besides the traffic chaos that Sharmeen navigated, she also found the roads leading up to the flyover at BKC narrow. “This could cause bottlenecks towards the BKC-end of the connector,” she said.The project, which was launched by MMRDA in 2015 and which missed several deadlines, will emerge as a vital cog in the east-west connectivity, which has been a bane in Mumbai. Currently, the four link roads – Sion-Mahim, Andheri-Ghatkopar, Santacruz-Chembur and Jogeshwari-Vikhroli – are the only east-west connectors for vehicles in the city.Among the things in the pipeline to create seamless east-west connectivity is a coastal road which has already run into legal hurdles, and two elevated metro lines.The Rs 203-croreis an engineering marvel (see graphic below) wherein a 230-mt long stretch passes over Mithi River and has 50-mt-long rail overbridges over railway tracks near Sion and Chunabhatti.