Encroachment on the road connecting Dr Annie Besant and the 80-ft Pandurang Budhkar Marg was recently removed by BMC. Developers around the area say, the faster connectivity will help Real Estate.
By Varun Singh
Encroachment was recently removed by the BMC on an important road in Worli. The DP access road connecting Dr Annie Besant and 80-ft Pandurang Budhkar Marg (PB Marg) earmarked to provide easier access to Lower Parel, South Mumbai and Worli sea-link corridor has finally faced the wrath of BMC a few days ago.
BMC razed down illegal and unauthorized encroachment to make the DP road accessible to the public. This road actually goes through the heart of the Central Business District of Lower Parle and Worli with many mills, and upcoming real estate development and hence is very important.
There has been a long existing demand that the encroachment on the sides of the roads leads to traffic chaos and hence be removed. With the removal the new road is expected to eliminate the harrowing commuting woes. Travel time is set to be reduced and locals and commuters can access the adjoining roads and their destinations faster.
Also, at stake is the extension corridor of Mumbai’s biggest infra project, the Rs 25,000-crore Sewri-NhavaSheva Trans Harbour Link; also known as the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), to connect it with South Mumbai and central suburbs. MMRDA has planned a 4.5-km-long elevated road that will connect MTHL with Worli and Bandra Worli Sea-Link (BWSL).
It is expected that post the DP road is opened for public, the local travel time reduction is expected to be drastic given the current traffic conditions. Commuters from Worli sea link or AB Junction can touch Lower Parel junction within 10 minutes from the existing 40-minute drive and reach BMC G South ward (Deepak Talkies- N M Joshi Marg) within 7 minutes as compared to 30-minutes currently.
Travelling between VN Marg (Worli fire station) to Lower Parel is also expected to be a mere 10-minute drive compared to 35 minutes currently.
Recently, BMC had removed structures located along the 80-ft Pandurang Budhkar (PB) Marg in Worli and the 60-ft Shankar Rao Naram Path in Lower Parel resulting in drastically cutting down the travel time by more than 45 minutes between Lower Parel station to Doordarshan junction in Worli.
Developers feel that having a better connectivity means a boost for real estate. “Today in Mumbai time is very important and if such DP connector roads can cut commute time drastically, one will find a lot of takers for projects where infra push is visible. The opening of this DP road is a good step by the present government destined to make commute faster for Mumbaikar. This DP road will bring down the travel time from BKC to PB marg via this new DP road junction (Old passport house – Annie Besant road junction) from 45 min to 15 minutes,” said a developer leader in SRA projects.
He further added that the opening of DP road will surely generate lot of interest among the investor community and end users in and around Worli area, who focus largely on strategically located residential projects and that too by reputed developers.
