Mumbai, March 14: Four additional lanes of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link will open to traffic by March 24, instead of March 16 as scheduled earlier.
Motorists moving from South Mumbai to the suburbs can use the new lanes after March 24 as some final touches are yet to be given to the north carriageway.
“It will not be opened on Gudi Padwa as planned earlier. Some work like painting, signages, etc remains. We think it will be opened by March 24,” said Jaydutt Kshirsagar, Minister of Public Works Department (public undertakings). The carriageway was to be commissioned by 2009 December but was delayed as work was behind schedule.
Now, the four lanes of the operational carriageway are divided into two each for north- and south-moving traffic, resulting in some accidents. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is pinning its hopes on the carriageway to minimise accidents. There have been no accidents on the sea link for the last few months.
Motorists will have to use a connector linking the carriageways at the Worli end till a cloverleaf interchange is built by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-led consortium, the concessionaire of the Worli-Haji Ali sea link.
The cloverleaf interchange from the Worli end will be built from the second carriageway and connect to the road at the Worli end, next to the existing exit of the sea link. The construction of the 1.5-km cloverleaf would take at least 18 months once it begins, officials added.
—-Agencies