Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is likely to begin the construction works on the proposed Thane creek bridge-III from January 15, 2020. The move follows the approval it received from the Bombay High Court (HC) to cut down 430 mangroves, that are affected due to the project. An official from MSRDC stated, "We will approach the Union forest authority, informing them about the HC's permission, and get the official permission to undertake the civil work."

The proposed TCB-III alignment will be passing through parts of the Thane creek mangrove region and the flamingo sanctuary. Therefore, as a compensatory measure, MSRDC has identified 1.4 hectares of land at Erangal in Madh Island for carrying out afforestation. However, the official stated, "Follow-up will be done with the Urban Development (UD) department in order to get the identified land transferred in the name of forest department, only after which the sanction orders of work will be approved."

Besides afforestation, the MSRDC has also allotted Rs 15 crore (two per cent of the total project cost) to the state mangrove cell for the conservation of flamingo sanctuary.

The proposed TCB III will improve the connectivity between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai and will avoid the bottleneck at the existing three-lane Thane creek bridge -II. Since the existing TCB-I and II were built in 1973 and 1997, now considering the rising vehicular movement and upcoming Navi Mumbai international airport, this new bridge has been proposed to ensure smooth traffic movement. The proposed TCB-III will provide six more lanes to the existing TCB-II. Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T ) to undertake the bridge construction work at cost of Rs 775.58crore.

Highlights:

Total project cost is Rs 775.58 cr

L&T to undertake the construction of TCB-III bridge

Rs 15 cr allotted for the conservation of Thane creek flamingo sanctuary

Rs 20-25 lac allotted for carrying out afforestation on 1.4 hectares of land at Erangal in Madh Island.

Project delayed for one year for want of permission for tree cutting and mangrove cutting.