Traffic on Mumbai’s Santacruz-Chembur Link Road extension stalled as rumblers on road come off days after inauguration
Dubbed as South Asia's first cable-stayed bridge, the SCLR extension in Mumbai was constructed at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore and inaugurated on August 14.
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The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) officials said that the repair works were initiated immediately. (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)Within a week after its inauguration, traffic movement in the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road’s (SCLR) extension in Mumbai came to a standstill on Saturday after the newly installed rumblers, a safety feature, came off the road surface. The incident took place around 1.30 pm, following which vehicles were diverted through the Hansbhugra Marg in Santacruz East.
The last leg of the extension of the SCLR, with a cable-stayed bridge over the Western Express Highway (WEH), was opened on August 14. The bridge, built at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, links CSMT Road in Kurla to WEH close to Vakola.
Meanwhile, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) officials said that the repair works were initiated immediately.
“The bridge was shut for around 2 hours. The rumblers on the road that were made of mastic and had rubber coating on top came off and repair works were initiated immediately. We (MMRDA) have imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on the contractor while another penalty of Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on the project management consultant (PMC) for this,” an official told The Indian Express.
Dubbed as South Asia’s first cable-stayed bridge, the SCLR extension is meant to cut down traffic congestion in Mumbai’s western suburbs significantly.
The construction of this bridge began in 2016 to allow motorists coming from the eastern suburbs and the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) via the SCLR to bypass the congested Kalina junction and land directly on the Western Express Highway (WEH) after the Vakola Flyover.
“The rumblers were fixed during the heavy rain that were ongoing just a few days before it was inaugurated. It was the consultant’s job to oversee the operation on whether the rumblers were installed accordingly,” the officer said.
This last stretch of the SCLR is a 215-metre-long deck, 25 metres above the ground. Its noteworthy feature is a 90-degree curve with a 100-metre turning radius, a first-time alignment attempt in Asia.
The SCLR extension project began with an expected deadline of 2019 and an allocated budget of Rs 450 crore. Delays due to design issues, contractor performance, and repeated extensions of deadlines increased the cost.
Earlier, the MMRDA had penalised the contractor for poor progress. However the project continued to face logistical challenges.
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