The Times of India            28.11.2013  

Thane Municipal Corporation to identify missing road links to regulate traffic

THANE: The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) is trying to establish missing links in its road network by carrying out a drive.

As part of the effort, municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta on Tuesday inspected a few civic wards to identify missing links in the major thoroughfares.

The civic body has been struggling to track as many as 20 major missing links in its road network over the past few years, many of which have been lost to either encroachment or random construction activity. The links range from 10 metres to 40 metres in width and vary in length. Any missing link could be 500 metre or up to 12,000 metre in length. In the absence of the link, a road network remains incomplete and is prone to traffic mess.

''The civic chief has directed to speed up the process of identifying the missing links in Thane's road network. Once that is done, the traffic mobility of an area can be successfully streamlined,'' said a senior TMC official of the engineering department.

In ward 1, the municipal commissioner inspected the road network, including the missing links, along with local corporator Naresh M.

"Near a land reserved for a playground, the access has remained poor because of a missing link in the network. The commissioner issued orders to fix the same soon. The missing link in the other wards will also be identified to improve traffic issues," said an official.

The corporation has over the years developed various roads according to the development plan (DP).

While some of these were developed to their fullest potential in width and length, others were left partial because of various issues, such as requirement of time or encroachment on the available land.

"Now, considering the present and future growth for improving connectivity and mobility of the area, the civic body has identified vital missing links," said a civic official.