The Maharashtra government is considering a proposal to connect Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, to the nearby satellite towns through an elaborate network of highways and freeways. The proposal has been put forward by an 11-member joint technical committee headed by municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar. The corridor, which will cover 1,740km, is expected to be completed by 2030. The committee aims towards a substantial investment in providing a decent infrastructure to improve the condition of the heavily congested roads of the city. The proposal includes ring roads, radial roads, freeways and a connected network of highways.
The highway network would comprise the Eastern and Western Freeways, the Sewri-Worli Sea Link, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), inner roads, a middle ring road and an outer ring road. The Western Freeway would connect the city’s commercial nerve centre – Nariman Point – with its western suburbs while the Eastern Freeway would run from South Mumbai to the eastern suburbs, and then go on to meet the Eastern Express Highway. The proposed MTHL will link the port of Nhava to Sewri. Eight radial roads have been proposed which will link parts of the two national highways – NH-8 and NH-3, many parts of Navi (New) Mumbai, and the eastern suburbs of Mumbai with the new airport being constructed at Vashi. The MTHL and the Virar-Alibag corridor will complete the ring road around Mumbai. The project will see the construction of 539km of new highways, improvement and upgrading of 782km of existing arterial roads, and construction of 482km of new links to the existing arterial roads.
