A section of the Bandra Kurla Complex may soon have smoother traffic movement, as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) plans to make it signal-free on a trial basis. Senior officials said they are working on a plan for seamless navigation in G block through a series of one-way streets.
Busy section
Around 50,000 vehicles pass through G block on an average weekday, which houses the offices of several major companies and banks. Senior officials are worried that with the completion of the the BKC-Chunabhatti connector, the number will increase significantly.
The 1.6-km elevated road will start near Priyadarshini building on Eastern Express Highway and enter BKC at G block near the Jet Airways-Godrej building. Once completed, it will cut the average travel time from central and eastern suburbs to BKC by 30 minutes and will help decongest Dharavi and Sion junctions. The project, which was announced in April 2015, is expected to cost around ₹156 crore and is slated to be completed by June.
Use as transit
However, officials are worried that motorists will use the bridge as a quicker route to reach Western Express Highway and the western suburbs. “The primary aim of building the connector was to provide direct access to BKC from the eastern suburbs. However, BKC and G block in particular will get severely congested if motorists simply use it as a transit to access the western suburbs,” a senior MMRDA official said.
The official said that while the broad plan was to streamline traffic across BKC, the MMRDA was also looking at ways to discourage motorists from using the BKC as a transit.
A straight road from the junction where the bridge ends to the main BKC Road provides direct access to Bandra and the Western Express Highway. MMRDA officials said that as per the plan, motorists arriving from Eastern Express Highway will not be allowed to use the road. They will be able to access the main BKC Road only towards the Kurla-end.
