Back in 2015, Thane Municipal Corporation initiated the road-widening project and ever since the beginning, the project is going on in a slow pace. On one hand, when one project has not been completed in 5 years, the public works department (PWD), on the other hand, says it would build new roads in Thane over the next two years.
With an ambitious plan of completing 65 roads of 67 kilometres across the city by the end of 2021, PMC officials said that around 80% of the development will be implemented at the earliest. So far, in the last four years, officials from the TMC have completed 27 new roads spreading over 25km. Work in areas like Pawar Nagar Road, Varun Garden Road, Waghbil Road, Pokharan Road one, two and three, have been completed.
Talking about the new plan, a PWD official said, “We have chalked out a vision document to speed up the road-widening project across the city. This includes building 65 roads of around 67km by 2021 —31km will be new roads, 26km roads will be widened while 9km will be upgraded to concrete roads. We have started the work on most of these roads, while the work orders for the rest have been given.”
Sharing his thought on the delay in completion, he said, “We have to first acquire the land, rehabilitate the project-affected and demolish structures before starting work. It is time-consuming as we acquire land in exchange of transfer and development rights. We also need to have enough housing stock to rehabilitate the people affected in the widening.”
Adding his thought, activist Milind Gaikwad, who believes that the plan is only going to remain on the papers, said, “The vision looks good on paper but it is not possible to implement it. The city is already facing congestion due to Metro work. If the internal roads too are dug up for concretisation or widening, there will be more traffic snarls in the city in the coming months.”
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