The Rs 4,028-crore budget cleared by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on March 23 made it clear that the budget’s thrust would be on road infrastructure development in the city’s distant suburbs such as Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Kalyan-Dombivli.
The budget suggested that the third underground Colaba-Bandra (airport)-Seepz Metro line, for which Rs 500 crore has been allocated, would be a priority over the non-starter elevated Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd (CBM) Metro, which is said to be on the verge of getting scrapped. The work for CBM was awarded to Reliance Infrastructure three years ago but people residing in the western suburbs have been demanding to make it underground. There is no major allocation for CBM in the budget.
The next two focus areas of the budget are the Nhava-Sewri sea link and its Sewri-Worli connector at Rs 200 crore, and the Alibaug-Virar multimodal corridor at Rs 150 crore. Beyond Mumbai eight new roads, six flyovers and a creek bridge will be on execution chart of MMRDA this year. Airoli-Katai Naka road tunnel towards Mumbra would be a completely new project.
Development of road network in Wadala TT area, noise barriers on the newly built flyovers, underpass at Kalanagar junction, BKC-Eastern Express Highway elevated road, flyover at Kherwadi junction on WEH and development of Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road under the ongoing Metro line work would be the top priority projects in Mumbai.
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