Western Express Highway

Background

This highway has been instrumental in reducing congestion on the SV Road in the western part of the city. There are several flyovers built along sections of the Western Express Highway. The Andheri Flyover (opened in 2002) was one of the flyovers built over the Western Express Highway to avoid traffic lights for vehicles moving towards Vile Parle, Bandra, and so on. Recently, another project has been undertaken by the MSRDC to construct a flyover bridge from Vile Parle onwards to avoid regular traffic jams that occur on the Highway. Other flyovers on the highway are the National Park, Dindoshi, Thakur Complex, Times of India, Pathanwadi, Goregaon, JVLR, Centaur, Vakola, and the newly opened Kherwadi flyovers. Motorists can now travel with no traffic signals from Dahisar till Bandra. New reflectors are installed on the Express Highway for better visibility of the road during the night. Signs showing directions have also been set up at major junctions of the highway. Over the past decade, there have been major improvements, including installation of better signage, improvements to landscaping, and the introduction of marked lanes, painted kerbsides, and pedestrian bridges.

The airport flyover, also known as Sahar Elevated Access Road, connects to the WEH using tunnels and bridges. The airport flyover was finished in 2014, and motorists on the WEH are able to access the new terminal with ease. The other alternative to the SEAR is to turn east on to local streets which are relatively narrow, have poor lighting and have lower speed limits. The statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja is placed near the entrance of the SEAR; previously, this statue was located at the international terminal of the airport.

Link roads connecting WEH and EEH, such as the Jogeshwari – Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) and Santa Cruz – Chembur Link Road (SCLR), are the major arterial roads of the Mumbai suburban road network. Both the WEH and the EEH run along north-to-south direction and are parallel in certain sections.

Parallel Rail links

The highway largely parallels the Western line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway.

As part of the Mumbai Metro master plan, the Red Line which is operational from April 2022 and Line 9 (Mumbai Metro) its extension which is being constructed on the Western Express Highway from Bhayander to Dahisar East to Mumbai T2 Airport. It will have six interchanges with the Yellow, Aqua, Green, Gold and Red line extensions of the Mumbai Metro.

References

References

1. "MMRDA - Projects - Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project". Mmrdamumbai.org.
2. (18 September 2017). "Western Express Highway: Few know this arterial road honours a former diplomat". Indian Express.
3. [[Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation]] (BMC). "Urban Transportation". BMC.
4. MMRDA. (2002-06-30). "EA/EMP report of JVLR (Jogeshwari - Vikhroli Road) project under MUTP : Mumbai. Vol. 3 of India - Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) : environmental impact assessment". World Bank.