Largest flyover taking shape at Andheri

MUMBAI, Feb 7: From the air a section of the Western Express Highway probably looks like a bombed-out stretch of road, but on the ground ...

MUMBAI, Feb 7: From the air a section of the Western Express Highway probably looks like a bombed-out stretch of road, but on the ground the country8217;s largest flyover, nearly one and a half kilometres long is racing towards a November 8217;99 completion date.

Giant 85-tonne gantry cranes effortlessly swing 30-tonne slabs onto 13-metre-high-pillars, assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle in the centre of the road in a round-the-clock construction schedule.

This whopper of a six-lane flyover will whizz traffic over three junctions on the highway, with a first-of-its-kind two-storeyed shopping mall beneath.

Madhav Jog, Managing Director of project contractor Jog Engineering Ltd says the project is easily the largest and widest in the country. 8220;This flyover is twice the size of the ones currently under construction in Mumbai and is 25.4 metres wide as against the standard width of 22.3 metres.8221;

But this Rs 140 crore flyover, on which construction work began late last year, has already spent longer with thebureaucracy. Tenders for the project were received way back in November 1994 and it was three years later on October 21, 1997 that the project was finally awarded to the Mahakali Flyover company set up by Jog, the Hiranandani group and SICOM.

New construction techniques and considerable design freedom, have whittled away a full year from the construction schedule. While the government8217;s contract specified a completion period of three years, or on October 2000, Jog hopes to complete it a year before.

As with the 50 other flyovers casting their long shadows all over the city, this mammoth steel and concrete structure uses pre-fabricated cement blocks eliminating the need for on-site cement casting. 8220;If I had to use the same construction techniques I used on the Kalanagar flyover, it would take four years to complete this one,8221; Jog says standing on the first floor of the under-construction pile.

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However, unlike the other flyovers the contractors don8217;t stand to profit from an early completion as it is aBuild-Operate-Lease-and-Transfer BOLT project. The Mahakali company has invested over Rs 35 crore with the rest of the money coming in from various financial institutions.

The commercial space under the flyover, a staggering 5 lakh square feet, will be given on a 99-year-long lease to the Mahakali Flyover company. The company has now issued advertisements selling space for Rs 4000 per square feet. Though just one prominent company has given a letter of intent, he hopes to rope in companies in the travel business, warehousing firms for airborne cargo besides the shops and showrooms. Jog deflects criticism that the flyover and its associated shopping malls will cause huge traffic congestion on the highway.

The complex has in its basement a one lakh square feet parking space for 550 cars, again the biggest car parking space in the city. The flyover itself will handle over 50,000 vehicles per day on its six lanes. 8220;Forty per cent of the traffic will go over the flyover, while the rest will be spread outover the eight lanes on the ground level, four on each side,8221; he says, adding that the traffic would be better dispersed between these 14 lanes than were done by all the buildings at a single stretch in Nariman Point who disgorged their vehicles onto a two-lane road.