P D'Mello Road is a 6 km long arterial north-south access road in Mumbai . P D'Mello Road is the name of the 6km stretch between the south-end of the Eastern Freeway and the north-end of the Colaba Causeway . The road forms an important link between South Mumbai and places such as Chembur , Sion and Thane . The road comes under Mumbai's B Ward.
According to a 2009 survey by the city's metropolitan administration, with the help of private consultants, an average of 22,600 vehicles used P D'Mello Road daily, for both north and south bound traffic.
History[]
On 23 January 2006, The Times of India reported that the State Government had decided to concretise, widen and make slum-free the stretch from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) to Wadala which includes P D'Mello Road, as part of the government's 750 crore (US$130 million) to clear slums and widen key roads in Mumbai. The move would also speed up north-south traffic and pave the way for railway expansion at CST by building additional platforms at Carnac Bandar, as the road could be used as the access route for the expanded terminus. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would allocate 30-35 crore in its budget to concretise portions of P D'Mello Road and other roads that run from CST to Wadala. According to then additional municipal commissioner Shrikant Singh, "The entire footpath and 50% of the carriageway on P D'Mello Road is occupied by slumdwellers. This hinders traffic". In a 2007 survey road for its road widening project, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) found that the road had been encroached upon by more than 1,000 shanties, of which, 632 families were found eligible for rehabilitation.
The BMC began clearing slums in May 2007. Initially, 321 shanties that fall in the A ward (Fort-Colaba) were removed, and the people living there were resettled close to Vashi naka at Mankhurd. Those who were not eligible for housing, were given a public hearing by the BMC, as per a Bombay High Court order following a writ petition filed by the NGO Akanksha.The BMC removed about 2,700 unauthorised structures in total along P D'Mello Road. In July 2011, DNA reported that the BMC had decided to widen the road by 1.5 metres, by reducing the footpath area. The move was intended to improve traffic flow on the road, and discourage shanties from coming up due to the smaller footpath. The total cost for the widening was estimated to be 51 crore (US$8.5 million).