Mumbai, August 18: Much to the happiness of commuters in Mumbai’s Goregaon, the 45 minutes bumper-to-bumper drive will now take just one minute! Yes, you read it right. Earlier, commuters took more 30 minutes to travel from Goregaon East to West, but now with the new flyover thrown open for public use, traffic is set to ease as the same distance can be covered in less than five minutes. The construction of the 458-metre Veer Savarkar flyover has been completed and is now open for public use from Friday.

The flyover has been constructed with three lanes and depending on the flow of the traffic, police will decide which carriageway uses the third lane. The construction of the steel structure began in 2015 and serves as an important route for motorists as they will no longer get stuck on S V Road, which is usually the main traffic centre.

Reports by the BMC inform that the construction of the flyover was completed on July 31 and tests were conducted last Sunday. The civic body had decided to wait for an official inauguration to open. The flyover was barricaded with a police van at the entry points, but as the news went viral on social media, the BMC decided to open it up on Friday, TOI reported.

The report quotes Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra that the businessman had tweeted about the issue on Thursday saying, “If this is correct, then all Mumbaikars look to you Aditya Thackeray, since you represent the young, modern face of the Sena, to put an end to this practice of pointlessly delaying a service to citizens. I know you can do it.” Later, when the flyover was opened on Friday, Mahindra tweeted again saying, “Bravo @AUThackeray ... I knew you could do it...”

Take a look at the tweet:

According to a report by TOI, the BMC authorities opened the bridge on Friday morning. The flyover, that has been built at a cost of Rs 27 crore, now cuts the travel time on the stretch from 45 mins to flat 1 minute. This, in itself, will give a major relief to commuters from congestion on SV Road, which is jam-packed all the time.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 18, 2018 01:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).