Seven year itch: For coastal road project, Mumbai civic body plans to raze Rs 27 crore flyover inaugurated in Aug 2018

Time of India

2 days ago

Mumbai: As part of the Coastal Road 2 project, which will connect Versova and Dahisar, the BMC needs to demolish the Veer Savarkar flyover in Goregaon, a structure built at a cost of Rs 27 crore and thrown open just seven years ago.
The move has raised eyebrows, with some calling it an example of bad planning and a waste of public money.
Savarkar flyover, inaugurated in Aug 2018 and locally called the MTNL flyover, runs from Radisson Hotel to Rustomjee Ozone. After demolition, it is proposed to come back in a new avatar, as the lower deck of a two-deck flyover.
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Today's Savarkar flyover is an impediment to the construction of an elevated connector from the coastal road to Dindoshi.
"We studied the situation to see if there was any way out other than demolishing the flyover," an official said. "After finding no other option, we will now be proposing the demolition of the Savarkar flyover. We have proposed a double-decker flyover, the upper deck of which will act as a connector between Mindspace and Dindoshi court, while the lower deck will accommodate the (new) Savarkar flyover."
A proposal will soon be sent to the municipal commissioner for his sanction.
The official said that the stretch of the proposed coastal road from Mindspace to Dindoshi court, which will connect to the proposed Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR), forms a part of one of the many project packages of Coastal Road 2. "The idea is to allow motorists to seamlessly connect from the coastal road to the GMLR tunnels and onwards to the eastern suburbs," the official said.
Municipal sources said a former BMC officer had pointed out that the Savarkar flyover would be coming in the way of the Coastal Road 2 project about a year ago but it was now that a proposal to resolve the issue was being worked out.
Former Goregaon corporator Deepak Thakur said the MTNL flyover is one of the most crucial connectors in the area, and demolishing it will lead to traffic chaos.
"Before the flyover was constructed, it would even take up to 45 minutes to cross the junction. Now, with its demolition planned, traffic going towards areas like Malad, Madh and Marve will be badly hit," he said, adding that contractors involved in the works had already begun a survey of the area.
The move has raised eyebrows as it involves dismantling a relatively new bridge to make way for infrastructure that will further alter the suburban landscape. Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh called it bad planning.
"The Coastal Road (North) has been in the planning for many years. How can we realise now that it will need to demolish a flyover which was built less than a decade ago? Further, this is public money that the administration is wasting.
Some accountability is required," Shaikh said.
Works on the coastal road have gained pace, with authorities conducting regular inspections of the site in the past few weeks.
The proposed demolition of the Goregaon flyover mirrors the recent removal of a major stretch of the Bandra (West) skywalk — dismantled between 2019 and 2024 — to make way for Metro Line 2B, which connects DN Nagar to Mandale.
The Coastal Road (North), or the Versova-Dahisar Link Road (VDLR), is a 22-km alignment that includes roads on the ground, elevated sections, stilts, a cable-stayed bridge, and a cut-and-cover tunnel beneath a creek.