Mumbai: Opposition is growing against BMC’s proposed move to demolish Goregaon’s Veer Savarkar flyover to make way for a double-decker bridge connecting the Malad-Mindspace stretch of Mumbai Coastal Road-North to Dindoshi.BJP MLA from Goregaon Vidya Thakur, along with party workers, met civic officials over the weekend and demanded that alternatives be explored to avoid dismantling the existing seven-year-old structure. They warned that demolition would trigger traffic chaos in the area. Thakur also wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, urging that the razing plan be scrapped immediately and instead, BMC look at integrating the existing flyover into the new one.“Swatantryaveer Savarkar flyover on Swami Vivekanand Road was constructed seven years ago. This flyover helped decongest traffic in Goregaon and the surrounding areas. It has come to notice that under Package-B of the Coastal Road project, this flyover is proposed to be demolished. Considering that nearly Rs 27 crore was spent on its construction just 7 years ago, the proposed demolition has generated widespread opposition and resentment among local residents. Therefore, I request that instead of demolishing it, the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Flyover should be integrated into the Coastal Road project so that traffic flow remains smooth and the flyover is not wasted,” said Thakur, in her letter to BMC and the CM.Civic officials told TOI that several options were studied by BMC to see which would be the best option in terms of efficiency. It was finally decided that a double-decker bridge will take care of both the localised traffic as well as the connector needed from Malad to Dindoshi, and hence demolishing the existing flyover was proposed.In the first week of Aug, local motorists noticed that at Dindoshi, where the connector would merge with Goregaon-Mulund Link Road project, the piling work for the connector has already started.
