Mumbai Eastern Freeway

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The Eastern Freeway is a controlled-access freeway,[1] in Mumbai, that connects P D'Mello Road in South Mumbai to the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) at Ghatkopar. It is 16.8 km long and its estimated cost is INR1250 crore (US$190 million). The Eastern Freeway was built by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and funded by the Central Government through the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM). Construction was contracted to Simplex Infrastructure Ltd.[2] Nearly 35,000 vehicles travel on the Eastern Freeway daily.[3]



The MMRDA installed 3 m high vision barriers or view cutters for about 2.3 km on the eastern side and about 700m on the western side, along the 3 km Sewri-Wadala stretch of the Eastern Freeway.[38] On the eastern side, the MMRDA will install view barriers from Sewri railway station to nearly Mahul while on the western side barriers will stretch from Veg Oil junction in Wadala to near Mahul. The view cutters are steel structures made of a light-weight sheet and cost INR2.68 crore (US$410,000) to install. The view cutters are intended to protect petroleum refineries and other sensitive installations along the stretch. Oil companies such as Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil requested the MMRDA to install the view cutters after seeking the opinion of the Mumbai Police. According to Jaywant Dhane, executive engineer at the MMRDA, "Police officials have also observed that these establishments can be very vulnerable to terror attacks by throwing of hand grenades or other ammunition from the Eastern Freeway". Since the Eastern Freeway will be a toll-free road without any signals, the MMRDA also installed crash barriers made of metal beam on both sides of the divider for the entire length of the corridor at the a cost of INR5 crore (US$770,000).[2] The MMRDA also installed one metre steel crash barriers in the median along the freeway. The barrier will keep any vehicle that crashes into it on the same side of the road, minimising the severity of the accident.

Thirteen MMRDA engineers, 82 contractors and around 1100 labourers worked on the project. Construction of the freeway required the use of 30.25 lakh bags of cement, 43,100 tonnes of iron rods and 3150 tonnes of high pressure iron. The project involved the rehabilitation of around 5500 houses, out of which 300 were commercial settlements. Thirty 30 religious locations belonging to different religions were relocated for the project. The MMRDA also had to increase the height of high voltage electric wires while building the elevated road, and had to relocate the underground amenities.

The Eastern Freeway is the second project in Mumbai to have seismic arresters. The first was Bandra–Worli Sea Link.

Seismic arresters will enable the freeway to withstand earthquakes measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale.

At least 12 CCTV cameras will be put up on the entire stretch between Chembur and Orange Gate in south Mumbai by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) jointly. Metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan said, "We have agreed on installing the cameras on Eastern Freeway, but the BMC will buy them as they already have plans to put up CCTV cameras all over Mumbai."

Prior to its opening, concerns were raised about its safety and irresponsible driving by motorists, but at that time the MMRDA had no plans to install CCTV cameras. Now, after witnessing accidents, it has agreed to the importance that these electronic devices have.