``We have agreed to the WB directive and will be asking MMRDA to conduct the assessment,'' said principal secretary of UD, K Nalinakshan. ``We shall take a view on the project once the study is ready.''

The ambitious 50 flyover scheme for the city is being undertaken by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) at a cost of Rs 1,170 crore. While work on projects in the Western and Eastern Express highways has already started, construction is yet to begin on flyovers within the city limits. Theseinclude at Haji Ali, JJ Hospital-Bhendi Bazar area, Crawford Market, Siddhi Vinayak, Dadar Khodadad circle - which has been taken up by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation - and three flyovers at SB Marg - at Elphinstone, NM Joshi Marg and Fergusson.

Of these, tenders for four - the JJ Hospital and the three SB Marg flyovers have already been called for. Work at Siddhi Vinayak has been postponed since the traffic department is expected to create a one way system there.

However, though the flyover scheme has been kicked off, transport planners and environmentalists fear that the large number of flyovers could only increase traffic congestion. Already opposition has been building up against the Haji Ali viaduct for fears of environmental pollution.

Apparently, WB officials who were in the city last month to study the progress made on MUTP expressed its concerns on the traffic management scheme. The flyovers are believed to be at odds with the WB scheme of urban transport management, where controllingprivate vehicles was to be one of the more important instruments of traffic management. With flyovers, on the contrary, private traffic is sought to be encouraged.

Besides, say transport planners, hardly any studies were conducted on the volume of traffic that such flyovers would encourage or on the need for flyovers at almost all big junctions in the city.

The vice chairperson and managing director of the MSRDC, R C Sinha, however, maintains that such a study is unnecessary. ``If somebody wants to spend money on some study that will help some consultant make money, I have no objection,'' he stated, adding that he had got the cabinet's approval to build the flyovers and would go ahead with it. Quoting the Wilbur Smith study in 1962, Sinha said these flyovers had already been recommended. ``The MUTP project has been in the wings for so many years now,'' he said, ``What has the WB done for the city?''.