Keypoints:
- The freeway from Katai Naka (Near Kalyan) to Airoli being constructed by the MMRDA is set to complete its first phase by September 2021.
- Once the freeway is completed, it will decongest the heavy traffic on Shilphata Road and will cut travel time between Katai Naka to Airoli by 30 minutes.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is constructing the freeway from Katai Naka (situated near Kalyan) to Airoli and it is said to complete it’s first phase by September 2021.
Once the freeway gets completed, it will be decongesting the heavy traffic on the Shilphata road and also, it will cut the travel time between Katai Naka to Airoli by half an hour.
The commuters coming from Mumbai and heading towards Kalyan, Ambernath and Badlapur will be benefited.
On Thursday, the Kalyan Lok Sabha MP Dr. Srikant Shinde organised an inspection at the project site with the MMRDA officials.
While speaking to the media persons and after making the inspection of work, Dr. Shinde showed his satisfaction over the progress of work on 6 lanes from Airoli to Mumbra (Y Junction) and the tunnel work which is going on war footing.
Dr Shinde said that MMRDA has claimed that phase 1 work of the project is likely to be completed by the end of September 2021 while tunnel work is also going at war footing level. Shinde also informed that a proposal for approval of Phone No. 2 has been submitted to the urban development department and after getting approval, the process of land acquisition will be started soon with all necessary permission.
The journey of the citizens will be faster and residents of Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, Ambernath and Badlapur will be benefited most after the completion of the road from Airoli to Mumbra (Y junction) and Katai (Y junction).
After the completion of the project, the junction free route from Katai Naka to Airoli will be 12.3 km. The project includes construction of three lanes each for up and down traffic. The project is being executed in three phases. The first phase of the project includes a link between Thane-Belapur road and National Highway (NH)-4 near Mumbra bypass, the distance of which is around 11.8 km at present.
The stretch includes 3.5km of NH4 and a tunnel cutting through Parsik Hill of 1.7km towards the end of NH4. The work for the elevated road started in November 2017 and for the tunnel work in 2018.
The most important features of this project is that tunnel with 1.69 km is one of the longest tunnel compared to several other tunnels on Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
