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• With Mumbai being a vertical city geographically, rail and road commute has mostly been along the north-south route. After population explosion and subsequent growth of the suburbs — both eastern and western suburbs — authorities realised that the city’s east-west connectivity had been mostly ignored with weak road links and just a handful of bridges to cross over the rail lines.Now, the city’s east-west links are finally taking shape and most of them will be ready and functional in 2012.“The plans for east-west links had been in place since the 1960s and later in the 1980s in the Bombay Urban Transport Project. But, they never really took off,” said a senior official from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority MMRDA).“The Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) and Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) projects that finally took off under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project were stuck in red tape and due to rehabilitation issues. Now, all clearances have been acquired and the engineering work started. The crucial link roads will finally move ahead in 2012,” he added.
• The World Bank-funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project focuses on strengthening mass transport, especially improving suburban railway services and road connectivity.Citizens’ activists and DNA had run a campaign to re-start work on the stalled roads and bridges of SCLR and JVLR in October and November 2011.Subsequently, the authorities had started demolishing buildings and placing the remaining girders.“It is a victory for citizens. The JVLR project was stuck for many years. It used to take more than 30 minutes to drive through this small stretch,’’ said Vinod Sharma, who launched a citizens’ campaign for JVLR and a Facebook page.Harassed motorists and residents, including those from upmarket Powai complexes, led by Sharma, had chalked out an innovative campaign involving pasting posters, organising a walkathon, performing a street play and even creating a Facebook page to garner support and draw the attention of the authorities concerned.
• “Work is finally inching forward on the SCLR. It had been stuck because of poor planning and various other issues,” said Jitendra Gupta, whose citizen walkathon along the incomplete bridge in October 2011 led to action.“While a major portion of SCLR will be ready by 2012, JVLR’s last portion over the rail lines will start functioning in 2012,” confirmed the MMRDA official.Work on two other link roads — Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road via Chakala and the Mulund-Goregaon Link Road via Sanjay Gandhi National Park — is also under various stages of widening and construction.Another major mode of transport that will provide good east-west connectivity is the Mumbai Metro rail link between Andheri and Ghatkopar.When ready, Mumbaikars will have the option of hopping on to the metro and avoid getting stuck for hours in traffic snarls.
• To augment the efficacy of the east-west links, senior transport expert and chairman of the Mumbai Environment Social Network Ashok Datar suggested implementing dedicated bus lanes.“When the SCLR and JVLR were being finalised in 2003, we had suggested that these roads should have dedicated bus lanes for faster transport and better connectivity. But, the authorities did not listen to us,” he said. “The Metro is taking ages, but these bus rapid transit lanes could have been built faster and cheaper.”

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