BMC to spend Rs 1,591 crore to concretise 44 km of approach roads connecting with Eastern and Western Expressways

The EEH and WEH were taken over by the civic authorities from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for maintenance in 2022. Earlier in May this year, the BMC had floated a Rs 146 crore tender for carrying out pre-monsoon repair works in the two highways.

Civic officials said that the current tender will focus on repair works that are needed in the approach roads that connect the highways with the major and minor roads in Mumbai. “Several patches of the EEH and WEH are in a dilapidated state and have lived their age. Right now, our focus is to upgrade the existing infrastructure for which we intend to concretise the approach roads. These roads are filled with potholes, and since the highways are used by heavy vehicles, concretising is the only way ahead to prevent permanent damage to the road’s surface,” said an official.
The EEH is 23.55 km in length while the WEH is 25.88 km.

These two highways have multiple stretches of approach roads who total length near almost the overall length of the two highways. “After the coastal road becomes operational, we will get a parallel connectivity with the highways, following which the highways will be taken up for concretisation in a phased manner, which is the larger plan. In the meantime, nearly 400 km of roads in Mumbai is being concretised by the civic authorities and within next two to four years, our target is to concretise all the existing internal roads of Mumbai,” the official said.

Mumbai currently has a road network of 2,050 km of which 1,224 KM is already concretised, while the remaining roads are being taken up for concretisation in a phased manner.