CONSTRUCTION OF SKY WALK HAS DECONGESTED THE COMMUTER TRAFFIC TO A GREAT EXTENT ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF CHEMBUR RAILWAY STATION

Source: Chembur Ghatkopar Plus dated January 7, 2012 by Sudhakar Anchan. Pix: M.M. Shirodkar

Pix: M.M. Shirodkar

The sky walk connecting the Chembur railway station’s foot over bridge (FOB) has given a much needed relief to commuters going towards Tilak Nagar, Ghatkopar, Chheda Nagar, Munjal Nagar and also the nearby area like P.L. Lokhande Marg, However to step into the sky walk from FOB on the southern end of Chembur railway station, one has to bend to pass through a horizontal beam (as seen in the picture) put up as a barrier. Senior citizens, women and children are facing a lot of difficulty while passing through this stretch.

Many complaints from senior citizens and commuters alike have been lodged in Chembur railway station. “All complaints given to railway authorities’ fall on deaf ears” said advocate Vijay Amin from Munjal Nagar.

“Though the sky walk connecting the FOB has become operational in last year itself, the problem of stepping onto the sky walk from the FOB is still a cause for worry” he further stated.

Dharmanand L. Rikhadi, station master of Chembur railway station said, “The FOB from the southern end of the station has crossed its time bar. FOB will be reconstructed very soon. Besides the horizontal beam, a tin sheet was also erected on that stretch dividing the sky walk and the FOB. But commuters removed that tin sheet and started using this route”.

When asked him about the time required for the completion of the reconstruction of the FOB, the station master said, “For such queries you can talk to our engineering department.” A K Singh, PRO of Central Railway said he will take necessary steps soon.

Excerpt from Mid-Day, reported by Parth Satam on 2011-01-02 : Read Full Article

The Central Railway awaits instructions to remove the barricades from the skywalk. PIC/ SAMEER MARKANDE

Another project worth almost Rs 6 crores is lying unused and blocked for a month because the Railway and MMRDA are clueless whether the barricades should be removed

Lack of coordination between the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Central Railway (CR) has been inconveniencing commuters at Chembur Railway station since the part that connects the skywalk to the Foot Over Bridge (FOB) has been shut through December.

The 230-metre skywalk at Chembur West, adjacent to the station, runs between two FOBs. MMRDA has connected the skywalk to the FOB at the Kurla-end but the entrance to the connecting stairs has been blocked, forcing them to take a much longer detour to enter and exit the station.

As reported in http://www.accommodationtimes.com

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has thrown open one more skywalk partly at Chembur. The 80-meter long and 4-meter wide arm of the skywalk runs between the two existing FOBs at Chembur-W.

“The Authority will open the remaining 150-meter long arm of the Chembur skywalk in May 2010 as the work on the same has started recently after getting the required permission from the railway authorities, which came about a bit late”, said Ms.Ashwini Bhide, Joint Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA.

The cost for the entire skywalk, being constructed by M/s. Prime Engineering, is rupees 5.92 crores.

The MMRDA has, till today, fully thrown open three skywalks at Bandra-E, Bandra-E extension up to Bandra Court and Kanjurmarg. The Authority has also already partly opened five more skywalks at Mira Road-E, Dahisar-W, Badlapur-W, Borivli-W and Ulhasnagar-W.

The MMRDA is planning to construct in all 51 skywalks in the city of Mumbai and it’s Metropolitan Region.

The other day , I happened to visit the other side of Chembur  (the west side) , and noticed that the Skywalk has progressed quite a bit and the work was happening pretty fast … heres a few snapshots of the work-in-progress

As reported in Express India by PrashantRangnekar on Jul 12, 2009

It was decided to realign skywalks at Mahalaxmi, Sewri and Lower Parel as the monorail passes through these places. The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) has realigned three planned skywalks and scrapped one to make way for the country’s first monorail.

These skywalks were obstructing the route of the monorail and MMRDA had no option but give the mass transportation project priority over the skywalks.

“Monorail is a big project as compared to the skywalk. When we found that some skywalks were obstructing the monorail, we decided to realign them,” said Lt Colonel A Pahal, additional chief engineer of the MMRDA who is looking after the skywalk projects in the MMR.

According to officials, after a series of meetings, it was decided to realign skywalks at Mahalaxmi, Sewri and Lower Parel as the monorail passes through these four places.

Of the two proposed and sanctioned skywalks at Wadala, one was cancelled. The infrastructure agency is currently constructing 48 skywalks across the MMR.

A portion of the seven-part skywalk at Mahalaxmi, which was to come up on the Keshavrao Khade Mar at Mahalaxmi was also scrapped. The skywalk’s length, which was 1,600 metre earlier, has now been reduced to 1,000 metre. “Three parts of this skywalk had to be scrapped as they were in the way of the monorail,” said Pahal.

Similarly, the patch on the Bhatankar road at Lower Parel outside the station was also realigned as it was obstructing the monorail’s path. The Sewri skywalk was also realigned at the RAK Marg.”

At Wadala, the MMRDA scrapped one of the two skywalks. “We had to scrap a skywalk at D S Berato road at Wadala as it would have obstructed the rail path,” added Pahal.

“The process of realigning the skywalks was easy as one agency was undertaking two different projects. Had there been any other agency, it would have delayed the monorail project,” said an MMRDA official.

The MMRDA is constructing the country’s first monorail from Jacob Circle to Chembur via Wadala at a cost of Rs 2,460. The first phase of this corridor (from Chembur to Wadala) has to be completed in November 2010 and the rest (from Wadala to Jacob Circle) by April 2011.

Work is currently on at five places — Saibaba Road, Mint Colony, Wadala, Bhakti Park and R C Marg.

I have sent a  few emails to MMRDA requesting them to send us any updates on the Chembur Skywalk … especially the MAP/Route of the skywalk. I have tried googling for “Chembur Skywalk” too. There doesnt seem to be much info. Today, DNA has a small brief on the Mumbai Skywalks, and informs that MMRDA plans to open 13 skywalks ( There is total of 50 skywalks listed on the MMRDA site, accross Mumbai) for pedestrians by May 31, which includes Chembur too.

Seen a map for  the Chembur Skywalk anywhere. let us know? please drop a comment here , if you have ,  as many of us would be interested to know more details… maybe will see the skywalk before we see any map for the same.

Read DNA article … “ 13 skywalks will be ready by May-end ” by Ninad Siddhaye, Friday, April 24, 2009

Reported By : Vibha Singh in Chembur Ghatkopar Plus
The year 2009 is set to be a pedestrian-friendly year for residents of many areas in Mumbai. However, residents of Chembur are still in the process of discussion with the Mumbai Metropolitan Road Development Authority (MMRDA) which is still in the process of considering the proposal of construction of the skywalk between GM Link road to Chembur railway station.
Kala Suresh, civic activist and 25 other residents have sent a letter to the MMRDA for construction of a skywalk to reduce the woes of the residents of the area. Says Suresh, “We had sent a detailed proposal to MMRDA where a Google image of the area marked out with details was given. We had been discussing with them on the proposal. Each time we were told that the project has been approved but there are some technical modalities which need to be taken into consideration before they embark on it.”

Read Vibha Singh full story in Chembur Ghatkopar Plus

Complied By : Sudhakar Anchan ( Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus)
The state government-initiated MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) monorail project was inaugurated recently by chief minister Ashok Chavan. This is India’s first monorail project.

The launching ceremony of the Mumbai Monorail Project and Chembur skywalk/foot over bridge was presided over by Dy CM, Chhagan Bhujbal along with other dignitaries. As per MMRDA time schedule, the monorail project from Chembur to Wadala will be completed by 2010 and the Wadala to Saat Rasta project would take a further six months.

The travel time taken by the monorail will be one-third of time taken by BEST buses. Where there can’t be metro rail, monorail will be a good option. A Malaysian company SCOMI Engineering and Larsen and Toubro will jointly undertake the project. Each monorail will have four to six bogies in it. Senior citizens can utilise the facility of elevators at stations.

Some of the benefits of monorail are faster connectivity from Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk (Saat Rasta) to Wadala and Chembur, reduction in travel time and added impetus to growth on the corridor. The monorail will be eco friendly and most importantly road congestion will be drastically reduced in the city.

While inaugurating the project, CM Ashok Chavan said, “I thank citizens from Chembur because the inauguration of the project is being done from here. These projects will ease the citizens’ commuting problems. Their dream will be fulfilled. All work will be done at a fast pace. We will carry forward the work steadfastly.”

Under the skywalk project, there will be 67 skywalks in Mumbai, of which 30 skywalks will be completed by May this year. The project will be started from Chembur and there will be no hawkers on the skywalk. Various projects under MMRDA costing around Rs13,000 crore are being initiated from this part of Mumbai. MP Gurudas Kamat said, “We were able to undertake various infrastructure projects with the help of the central government. These developmental projects will change the face of Mumbai.”

Dy CM, Chhagan Bhujbal, State ministers Chandrakant Handore and Nawab Malik and MMRDA commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad also spoke on the occasion highlighting the advantages of monorail and skywalks.

Complied By :Sujatha Subraman (Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus)
Members of the Chembur Merchant Association held a meeting recently at Jewel of Chembur to discuss the details of the new development projects in the suburb of Chembur, namely the monorail and skywalk.
Interestingly, the monorail project which was supposed to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister at Gandhi Maidan was called off following the terror attacks. Ironically, when it comes to the details of the monorail, the citizens including the merchants of Chembur are clueless — hence a meeting was called to discuss the matter in detail.


Read full story on Chembur-Ghatkopar Plus

Seems still a far way ahead, being earmarked to complete in the year 2011 and adding a few years more years (being pessimistic , by default) , here and there for un-warrented delays, Chembur and the whole of mumbai , for that matter might not become completely like Shanghai, but we were to believe everthing our state government says , We, Chembur residents might soon get a METRO (train, rail or whatever you want to call it) Service between Mankhurd and Mahim. Cool Haan!!

Dont know much about it, and too bothered to dig more, the metro project has been divided into nine corridors and work has been priortised on the basis of traffic demands, construction cost and environmental factors. One of the nine corridors is the Mankhurd – Kurla – Mahim segment, which is 12.8 – km – long and is Likely to be taken up in the second phase between 2011 and 2016. “The cost of the Mankhurd – Mahim corridor is expected to be Rs 1,595 crore. The Mumbai Metro Rail Project, when complete will have the capacity to carry up to 28,022 passenger per hour on this segment alone,” says an MMRDA offical.
And guess what , who is spear-heading this project? E Shreedharan, managing director of Delhi Metro.

Lets all hope to see our Metro Rail soon!