Get set for 30 months of WEH traffic jams.

Brace yourself for more traffic jams on the Western Express Highway (WEH) for the next two-and-a-half years.

To minimise inconvenience to motorists, the traffic police have drawn up traffic management plans to deal with the situation till the end of construction.

To start the excavation and construction work on the Metro 7 corridor, connecting Andheri East with Dahisar East, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) announced on Monday that it would start barricading after the monsoon. However, the contractors for the 16.47-kilometre elevated corridor have already blocked areas at several places over the past 15 days.

Barricading, to begin with, has been done at three sections with a one-km stretch in each of the three packages, where work will be taken up by three contractors.

The areas are: the stretch from Hub Mall to the beginning of Aarey flyover; Pathanwadi to Pushpa Park; and the stretch from Metro Mall to Devipada. Utility wrenching is expected to begin on August 20.

“We request people to cooperate with us to complete this project, which will tackle traffic congestion. Most part of the corridor will be on the west side of WEH. Once it is complete, nearly 70,000 passengers are expected to travel in one direction in one hour,” said Pravin Darade, secretary to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), and Additional Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has already shared underground utility plans with the MMRDA, which will first identify the utilities and then begin the excavation work.

“The barricading will be carried out making sure there is no inconvenience to motorists. The three stretches cause relatively less congestion,” Mr. Darade said at a joint briefing with Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Milind Bharambe at the MMRDA headquarters.

The MMRDA, in consultation with the traffic police, will change working hours depending on the situation on the spot. “Generally, we would like to work in two shifts as we want to rid Mumbaikars of traffic woes. Launching of girders will strictly be conducted at night. We will make use of service roads and slip roads to minimise inconvenience to the traffic,” Mr. Darade said. Mr. Bharambe said, “We will provide additional lanes to the traffic in the peak hours. No parking on such roads will be allowed. Actual diversion of the traffic will be effected at a later stage. Trained traffic wardens will be deployed.”

The BEST Undertaking has agreed to ply more air-conditioned buses during the construction of the corridor. The toll lanes at Dahisar Naka will be staggered by around 500 metres to ease traffic congestion. A total of 247 residential and commercial structures will be removed and the affected will be rehabilitated under the MUTP Policy.

THE HINDU