MTHL: 55 night traffic blocks planned until May for girder launch at Eastern Freeway

“The night block will not be held continuously but will be operated on alternate days or over the weekends,” said an MMRDA official.

Eastern Freeway connects the eastern suburbs of Mumbai to South Mumbai. The freeway provides direct connectivity between Ghatkopar and P D’Mello Road in South Mumbai.

During the night blocks, five steel composite girders spanning over and across the freeway at the Sewri interchange of the MTHL project will be launched. The purpose would be to connect the freeway to MTHL from Cotton Green on one side and Wadala from another. The average weight of each steel span to be lifted is about 85 metric tonnes.

The under-construction MTHL, also popularly known as the Sewri Nhava Sheva Harbour Link, is a 22-km-long 6-lane bridge, 16.5km of which would be over the sea and about 5.5kms viaduct on land on either side. The link has interchanges at Sewri in Central Mumbai, Shivaji Nagar at Mumbai Bay and NH-4 B at Chirle, Navi Mumbai.

The MTHL will feature approach sections, interchanges, intelligence transport system (ITS) and other amenities required for a sea bridge. The traffic conditions on the stretch will be monitored and managed from the traffic control centre with the help of CCTV cameras and related facilities installed on the stretch.

For easy execution of the MTHL project, the work has been divided into four packages. While Package 1 to 3 is from Sewri (0.00 km to 10.380 km, 10.380 km to 18.189 km, and 18.187 km to 21.80 km respectively) on land, Package 4 will be an Intelligent Transport System on MTHL Bridge.

Once ready, the bridge is expected to help decongest the city so as to facilitate development of Navi Mumbai and Raigad district. Moreover, the link will provide faster connectivity to the upcoming new international airport in Navi Mumbai, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Mumbai-Pune road (NH-4), the Mumbai-Goa Highway  and the Alibaug-Virar Multi-Modal Corridor. It is also expected to provide faster connectivity between the Mumbai Port and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port.