Facelift for Thane roads

MUMBAI, MARCH 12: Thane city will sport a new look at the onset of monsoon. Work on widening of roads and removal of encroachments is close ...

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MUMBAI, MARCH 12: Thane city will sport a new look at the onset of monsoon. Work on widening of roads and removal of encroachments is close to completion along nearly 33 roads covering over 40 kms.

Over 6,000 structures were demolished and around 5,000 families were rehabilitated for the Rs 70-crore project which was taken up under the Integrated Road Development Programme (IRDP) last November, said Thane Municipal Commissioner R Chandrashekhar adding that work on the storm-water drainage is also in progress.

The IRDP has kept the civic administration on its toes. The TMC has posted an engineer on each road for speedy completion for work. Slums on both sides of the highway were cleared to make way for not only a 300-feet wide road for traffic but also a service road too. “It is a record that within two months, we could remove thousands of structures and immediately start widening of roads without using force,” he stated.

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Chandrashekhar said, “Never in the history of the country in any single city,the massive work had been taken up simultaneously. I have visited Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Vizag etc. but in these places the works are taken up piecemeal. In case of Thane we wanted to take up the job at one stroke and complete it in a time-bound programme.”

He said that he got inspiration and confidence after he had worked as the Municipal Commissioner at Kalyan for a period of three years. But as the work progressed he was happy that it could be finished early.

The TMC chief attributed the success of the project to the total co-operation of citizens adding that not even once he had to use force. “Simply the magic of persuasion worked wonders and this will prove to be a model for the other cities,” he said adding, “For a couple of weeks the citizens will be inconvenienced as work on all the roads are in progress but once it is completed they will heave a sigh of relief.”

In its last budget the TMC had provided Rs 33 crore for the project while in the current budget a sum of Rs 37 crore wasallocated.

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“Removing any single encroachment is a nightmare. It is followed by all kinds of problems. Rehabilitation is another major issue, but in case of Thane due to the citizens’ cooperation I could achieve both the things without any problem. I am proud to have rehabilitated more than 5,000 families to their satisfaction,” said Chandrashekhar.

The project-affected are being rehabilitated at different places including Kalwa in a phased manner.