In what may prove to be a major headache for commuters and lead to massive jams across Mumbai, two main roads at the Bandra Kurla Complex will be shut till June next year for the Mumbai Ahmedabad Bullet train project.
The closure of the two arterial roads — from Diamond Bourse to JSW Centre and trade centre near Motilal Nehru Nagar to Platina building — is set to hit traffic in the area as BKC is the commercial hub of Mumbai. The new BKC connector, which was opened a few years ago, connects the area directly to Eastern highway and further to Thane and Navi Mumbai.
To minimise inconvenience to commuters, the Mumbai traffic department has identified alternate routes through which one can commute to BKC.
Commuters who usually take the route from Razzak Junction in Kurla to Diamond Bourse Junction and towards Kherwadi to the JSW office can instead take a right from the Asian Heart Hospital. Commuters arriving from Motilal Nehru Nagar Trade Centre, going towards Platina Junction, can now opt for a left and a right towards the MTNL junction. Rather than taking the Razzak Junction to the Trade Centre route, commuters can now turn left at MTNL Junction. Those going to the JSW office via Kherwadi and Asian Heart Hospital, can now opt for a left turn from Nabard Junction, towards BKC.
As per a circular issued by Pradnya Jedge, Deputy Commissioner of Police, “traffic movement from Diamond Junction to J.S.W office and BKC Road Platina Junction to Motilal Nehru Nagar Trade Center, will be closed from Tuesday till the end of June 2024”.
As per reports, a 21-km-long tunnel will be dug between Bandra Kurla Complex and Shilphata station in Thane on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train route. It will run undersea for seven kilometres — which will make it the longest undersea tunnel in India.
The ambitious project faced delays after the change in government in 2019. The MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray had opposed the project and not given the nod for land acquisition. However, after the fall of the MVA government, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis sarkar extended full cooperation to the project and allotted land at Bandra MMRDA grounds for an underground railway station and other facilities for bullet train.