The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the MMRDA to file a reply as to what it pertains to do with regards to a masjid, which is coming in the way of the construction of Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR).

Excerpt from DNA, reported by DNA Correspondent on Jan 19, 2012: Read Full Article 

Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR)

The HC was informed that the masjid trust has been given an alternative masjid, which is 10 times better than the old one, but they are not allowing the old one to be demolished. The advocate for the trust argued that the new masjid, which is on Mhadaland is not being given an NOC and thus the new masjid is not legal.

The bench then directed MMRDA to write to Mhada for granting the NoC.

The HC was hearing a petition filed by a private construction company whose permission has been revoked by MMRDA. The company, Priya Constructions, wants to demolish the masjid situated at Tilak Nagar, as it is coming in way of the Santacruz-Chembur-Link Road and is required to be demolished for the implementation of a Slum Rehabilitation Scheme. According to the petition filed by the company, it was granted Letter of Intent in the year 2010 by MMRDA.

On Thursday, the authorities had a long-awaited gift in store for motorists on the Eastern Express Highway, but they bungled on the packaging. Five years in the making and after overcoming numerous hiccups, the Suman Nagar flyover was finally thrown open to the public in the morning.

Excerpt from Hindustan Times, reported by Zeeshan Shaikh on December 09, 2011: Read Full Article

The Suman Nagar flyover, which was started in November 2005,

owever, there was chaos at its mouth thanks to inadequate and confusing signage put up by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and traffic police.
The 500-metre flyover was planned to help motorists headed to Navi Mumbai, Pune or Konkan region bypass bottlenecks along the Sion-Chembur belt by going over the Suman Nagar junction in Chembur.

The confusion was created since the authorities had not pulled down the old signage directing motorists to keep right to take the right turn to go towards Navi Mumbai, while the new signage, asking them to keep left to use the flyover, was too small for anyone to notice.

This resulted in minor traffic blockages at the Chembur end of the flyover. To ease the congestion, the traffic police had to deploy personnel to announce the change on a bull horn during the evening peak hours.

The flyover was thrown open without any fanfare after chief minister Prithviraj Chavan backed out from holding a public function as he did not want to cause traffic snarls.

Santacruz to Chembur in 17 mins by Dec 2012

Excerpt from TOI, reported by Ashley D’Mello & Sandeep Asher, TNN on Nov 18, 2011: Read Full Article

Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR)

There’s good news for city commuters. The decks have been cleared for an overbridge at Milan Subway, Vile Parle, with chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad dealing with the issue of shifting a mosque and a madrassa.

The shifting has delayed the Rs 41-crore plan at the chronic flooding site. Gaikwad sorted out the issue amicably while pointing out an alternative site agreed upon by all parties.

The site was identified earlier and discussions were held, but objections had been raised by some parties.

Another crucial project, the Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road, was given a boost when two buildings at Netaji Nagar were demolished after 64 flat owners accepted compensation to cover their rentals for 36 months. They will be housed in a building constructed by HDIL at Bharat Nagar, BKC.

Excerpt from TOI, reported by Chittaranjan Tembhekar on Oct 10, 2011,: Read Full Article

Kurla residents protested against the delay in the completion of the Santa Cruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) on Sunday . The project has been delayed for over seven years now.

Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR)

“At the starting point of SCLR’s 3.4 km-long alignment from the Western Express Highway (WEH), where there are no encroachments, the widening of the bridge on a nullah is incomplete. There are 12 such points along SCLR’s elevated as well as road-level alignments where there are no encroachments.
Why is there no progress in the construction over the past five years?” said Jitendra Gupta, an activist from Kurla. Kanu Agarwal, a Kurla resident, said, “No work has begun to widen the Mithi river bridge where there are no encroachments. The work could have been completed long ago.” Another resident Naresh Sonarkar said, “The concretization of CST Road near the partially-constructed LBS flyover ramp is still incomplete.”

MMRDA spokesman Dilip Kawathkar said the work will be completed in the second quarter of 2012.

Excerpt from Indian Express, reported by MANASI PHADKE on Oct 03 2011: Read Full Article

Last week’s Bombay High Court order asking residents of Netaji Nagar to vacate their premises may not bring the long-delayed Santacruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) much closer to completion.

Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR)

Construction work on one section of the project has been stalled due to a squabble between the contractor and the MMRDA over price re-negotiations.

The contractor, Patel Engineering, stopped work several months ago asking for a hike in contract value to keep up with the rising prices of construction material. The MMRDA, the nodal agency for the project which is a component of the showcase Mumbai Urban Transport Project funded by the World Bank, is yet to decide on whether it will revise the contract value and, if so, by what quantum.

Termed as an engineering marvel by the National Geographic, the Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) that first started in 2003 is stuck in a maze of encroachments and red-tape. However, an official associated with the project says that this is a project of a “mega scale”.

Excerpt from DNA, reported by Rajendra Aklekar on Oct 1, 2011: Read Full Article

Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR)

Fed up with authorities’ apathy and unprecedented delay, citizens have decided to take up monitoring of the most-delayed project, the Santa Cruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR) bridge, to build pressure on authorities. A group of citizens from the Citizens Transport Committee set out to photographically document the project work on October 9.

“It has been more than six years that the project has begun and it is going on at a very slow pace. The authorities do not seem to be bothered about the ground realities and the trouble that the average commuter suffers. There are ramps, pillars and half-built structures left abandoned in crowded areas,” Jitendra Gupta of the Citizens Transport Committee, who is spearheading the campaign, said.

 Earlier stories on SCLR on InChembur News

Excerpt from Hindustan Times, reported by Indo-Asian News Service on September 15, 2010
: Read Full Article

Indicating that the prestigious Mumbai monorail project is on schedule, a top official said here Wednesday that six trains will ply in the first phase from later this month. Six trains, each with four air-conditioned cars, will be deployed on the nine-km-long Chembur-Wadala sector in eastern Mumbai, which is around 60 percent complete, said Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) Joint Commissioner Ashwini Bhide. “The civil work and most of the system including communications and signalling for phase one will be in place by December,” Bhide said here Wednesday evening.

The Rs.3,000-crore (around $648 million) monorail project is expected to ease the transportation woes of Mumbai’s nearly eight million suburban train commuters. It would benefit around 1.8 million commuters and this figure is expected to increase as the network expands, Bhide pointed out.

As reported by Express news service on  Mon Sep 06 2010

In June this year, the World Bank extended the deadline for the much-delayed Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) to December 2011.

Planned in 1997 and work finally started in 2003, the project aims to connect the eastern and western suburbs with an elevated road with a promise that the distance from Chembur to Santacruz can one day be covered in just 15-20 minutes. However, a 4-km stretch of the six-lane elevated road, from Kurla near the CST bridge to the Amar Mahal junction in Chembur, is running behind its original schedule by nearly five years. With four extensions, the SCLR is also a key reason for the long delays in completing the Mumbai Urban Transport Project.

The relocation of around 3,500 structures (both commercial and residential) and eight religious structures was the main reason for the delay. “The land acquisition is almost complete with the tenants of the buildings at Netaji Nagar finally agreeing to vacate the plot. A small patch has to to be acquired near the Amar Mahal junction, which houses a mosque,” said an MMRDA official.

Excerpt from Indian Express by Prashant Rangnekar on Aug 25, 2010 : Read Full Article

Even as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is gearing up to complete the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) Project, trustees of a mosque near Tilak Nagar that is to be relocated to make way for the road have refused to shift until the MMRDA shows evidence that the new site is owned by it.

A letter to the MMRDA by the Jamat-ul-Muslimeen Housing Board (the mosque authorities) states that while it is not against development, MMRDA does not appear to own the plot of land where they are being asked to shift to.

“We’re not against development and are ready to move, but the MMRDA should send us a copy of the document that confirms the ownership. We have also learnt that a service road is being planned and if that happens we have to again shift,” said Shahnawaz Kalburgi, secretary of the mosque. “More importantly, MMRDA doesn’t own the plot which they are offering to us. Under what authority (they) are giving us the plot,” vice-president of the mosque Mohammed Khuthbuddin asked.

Excerpt from Hindustan Times , reported by HT Correspondent, July 20, 2010 Read Full Article

With the 146-km Metro project cost escalating from Rs 19,525 crore to Rs 47,092 crore, the city’s planning body proposes to seek loans from international banks to finance the project. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is contemplating taking a loan of $20 billion (approximately Rs 20,000 crore) to build seven Metro lines.

“We are looking at international financial institutions to finance our Metro projects in the city. Officials from the World Bank and the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation have shown keen interest in participating in the Metro projects,” said Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad.

“We will need finance for many of our future Metro projects because some of these will be built underground, making the project costlier,” he added.