FIVE YEARS after dismantling the original structure, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) opened the much-awaited elevated walkway in Mumbai’s Bandra area for pedestrian movement. The flyover was inaugurated on Monday by cabinet minister and local MP Ashish Shelar.
The new skywalk is 680 meters long and will link the Western Highway (WEH) to the eastern side of Bandra station. This flyover will provide direct access to citizens from the station to Kalanagar junction, one of the busiest traffic junctions in Bombay. Kalanagar area is a major commercial area of the city that has a significant number of government and private offices, so this place sees a good footfall every day.
At present, the junction is only connected to Bandra railway station by a secondary road. However, the condition of the road is not good and is so overrun with street vendors and illegal vendors that citizens find it difficult to walk on it.
As a result, citizens have to rely on rickshaws, which often harass them with exorbitant fares. Therefore, inaugurating the flyover, Shelar said the new walkway will provide much better access to citizens and decongest the road below.
The new flyover has been equipped with two automated escalators. Apart from this, the new flyover also has four stairs installed. For additional security measures, BMC has installed 14 CCTV cameras on the walkway. The previous walkway only had two access points, so citizens did not prefer to use it.
The original flyover was built in 2008 by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and it was in 2019 that a structural audit by the BMC found that the flyover is not in good condition. Following which, in 2021, the authorities began demolition work on the flyover to reconstruct a new structure.
However, the deadline for the project was delayed several times due to issues such as removal of utility channels and removal of encroachments.
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“Due to heavy traffic on the WEH, construction work could only be carried out during a limited midnight schedule.
Also, the continuous movement of pedestrians on the road below the walkway required special precautions during construction,” Shelar said during the inauguration of the flyover.
Meanwhile, Abhijit Bangar, additional municipal commissioner (projects), said the walkway will be converted into a safe road crossing facility.