MUMBAI, JULY 25: Commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation T Chandrashekhar announced the Phase III of the road widening project in Thane on Friday. The survey on the project which had commenced immediately after the monsoon is almost complete.In the third phase, road length of 40 kms will be developed including 22 roads within the municipal limits of the TMC. The corporation will also take up development of the congested Mumbra-Kausa highway on a priority basis. This is the first stretch being developed outside Thane city.On the nine-km long Mumbra-Kausa road includes the two-km stretch near Mumbra railway station which is densely populated. A couple of years ago a truck had knocked down school-going children sparking off violent protests by the residents leading to traffic jams on the Dombivli-Kalyan-Navi Mumbai roads for over a week.The Thane civic staff have a tough task in their hands since the Mumbra-Kausa road is flanked by large scale encroachments many of the structures rising up to fourstoreys. Earlier, the TMC had proposed to the National Highway Authority to develop the road. However, the authority rejected the proposal citing funds crunch after which Thane Municipal Corporation took up the project considering the urgency of the project.As part of the third phase, the TMC will also develop the seven-km long stretch between Patlipada and Gaimukh on the Ghodbunder Road with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) as the nodal agency.By the end of this phase, 140 out of the total 180 roads within the jurisdiction of the TMC will be widened. In the first phase, the corporation had widened 33 main roads, covering a distance of 50 kms while in the just concluded second phase 34 arterial roads were widened over a distance of another 50 kms.
