With the decks cleared, MMRDA plans to open bridge to public by December-end. The MMRDA’s Rs 155.70-crore elevated corridor project connecting the western suburbs with the east just cleared a major hurdle: the Central Railway has granted permission to construction over its harbour and central corridor.

MMRDA commissioner UPS Madan said, “We recently received a clearance from the Railways to construct on the railway lines. We will complete this (the work) soon. The target is to throw the bridge open by December-end.”

The Railways had sat on the clearance for long, prompting Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take the issue up with Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.

MMRDA officers said they will have to work out blocks to install girders on the railway line. Around six years ago, the MMRDA had done similar work on the Central Railway while constructing the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road.

The 1.6-km-long elevated corridor project was cleared by the MMRDA’s executive committee in 2014 and was expected to be completed in three years.

It aims at providing seamless connectivity to the eastern suburbs, and cut travel time from the east to Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) by 30 minutes and the distance by 3 km. This connector will go a long way in decongesting traffic in Sion and Dharavi.

The proposed corridor will start from G-Block in BKC, cross Mithi river, LBS Marg, the Central Railway track and VN Mankikar Road leading to the Chunabhatti railway station, the Harbour line tracks and the Somaiyya Trust ground, and join the Eastern Express Highway.

The link will include a 260-m-long bridge across Mithi, rail over bridges (ROBs) near Sion station and near Chunabhatti station.

The scope of the work also includes construction of an ROB at the level crossing near Chunabhatti on VN Purav Marg.