L&T takes up ₹775-cr Thane Creek Bridge work

L&T is set to start construction work on the Thane Creek Bridge-III at an investment of ₹775.58 crore. The proposed TCB-III will provide six more lanes to the existing TCB-II. The proposed TCB-III alignment will be passing through parts of the Thane creek mangrove region and the flamingo sanctuary. The company has been provided ₹15 crore for the conservation of Thane creek flamingo sanctuary and ₹25 lakhs were allotted for carrying out afforestation on 1.4 hectares of land at Erangal in Madh Island as the project is already delayed for one year for want of permission for cutting trees in the mangroves, said an official spokesperson of the MSRDC, adding that it will approach the Union forest authority, informing them about the HC's permission, and get the official permission to undertake the civil work. The proposed TCB III will improve the connectivity between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai and will avoid the bottleneck at the existing three-lane Thane creek bridge -II. Since the existing TCB-I and II were built in 1973 and 1997, now, considering the rising vehicular movement and upcoming Navi Mumbai international airport, this new bridge has been proposed to ensure smooth vehicular traffic movement in the future.