Last hurdles for Eastern Freeway being cleared

Last hurdles for Eastern Freeway being cleared

After clearing over 7,000 structures and rehabilitating the families affected for the construction of the 16.8-km Eastern Freeway, the city's development authority is now razing the last batch of structures obstructing the project. This marks an end to the mammoth land acquisition process for the project.

Getting right of way, demolishing encroachments and resettling the project-affected people was one of the biggest challenges for the construction of the Eastern Freeway, which will provide uninterrupted connectivity from the eastern suburbs to south Mumbai.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will now take up the demolition of about five structures at Panjarpol near the under-construction twin tunnels, touted to be the first urban transport tunnels in Asia.

"Almost all the project-affected people have been shifted and only these structures are left on the edge of the Panjarpol tunnels. The owners were resisting displacement earlier and had approached the city civil court so the matter got delayed. We will raze the structures within 10 days," said Ashwini Bhide, additional metropolitan commissioner, adding that the MMRDA had razed about 10-15 structures near the tunnels two weeks ago.

However, an engineer working on the project said a small plot, known as 'Ibrahim plot' near the Chembur-Mankhurd Link road is obstructing eight to 10 foundations of the elevated road as the owner is resisting acquisition.

To construct the Eastern Freeway, which is expected to be ready next year, the MMRDA had to demolish large pockets of slums and residential buildings, and negotiate with several religious structures. While the MMRDA expects the first part to Anik and four lanes of the Anik Panjarpol Link Road to be ready by January 2013, connectivity up to Ghatkopar will only be possible by April or May 2013.

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