Mumbai:
The Santacruz skywalk is set to become the city's longest skywalk. It will be a total of 2.5 km when it is connected to Vakola Police station and S V Road in Santacruz (W). Speaking to Sunday MiD DAY, MMRDA Joint Project Director Dilip Kawatkar said, "The construction work is in full swing and we expect to complete it in two or three months. It will be the longest skywalk in Mumbai. We also expect it to be the skywalk with most traffic."
Currently, pedestrians who use the skywalk starting from Santacruz (E) railway station can walk only till the northbound lane of Western Express Highway. They then have to descend the skywalk and cross the road to reach Vakola. This stretch is known to be difficult to cross during peak hours and often results in traffic jams.
When questioned if there will be a lack of space to accommodate the skywalk arm under the Vakola flyover (proposed in the new plan), an MMRDA official said, "The arm passing under the flyover will be designed in such a way that it will allow pedestrians to walk comfortably. It will not affect the flyover above. To give you a fair idea, currently double-decker buses easily pass under the flyover and the construction of the skywalk arm will not change that."
In a study the MMRDA reportedly conducted two months ago on the number of pedestrians using skywalks in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) daily, it was found that the Santacruz skywalk (East to West) was the second most used skywalk (1,54,363 footfalls). The most used skywalk was the one in Bandra (East to West) with 1,90,478 footfalls.
The Santacruz skywalk, once fully complete, will be the first skywalk to allow pedestrians to cross over from east to west without purchasing platform tickets. The estimated cost of the entire Santacruz skywalk is over Rs 41 crore.