Thane: In bid to ease the traffic congestions for motorists driving in or out of the lake city, guardian minister Eknath Shinde on Monday suggested a string of measures to streamline the traffic flow by widening the road and introducing a staggered arrangement for the toll posts along the eastern express highway Plan is to utilize the huge vacant plot, once occupied by the BMC’s Octroi department, for putting up a toll booth and vehicles driving towards Mumbai will have to do a small round about to pay their toll before hitting the highway.Motorists coming into Thane will also be greeted to widened roads as the now-abandoned plot for octroi collection will be used to divert the traffic flow.Shinde undertook a spot inspection along with the MSRDC officials, MMRDA and the traffic department on Monday to finalise the plans to avoid traffic snarls once the work on the widening of the Kopri flyvover starts. As per the plan, on both the sides before the Anandnagar toll plaza, the authorities are planning to install slabs and extend the roads to ease the traffic congestion . Besides that, to avoid bottlenecks near the toll plaza while entering Thane as well as Mumbai, multiple booths for toll collection would be set up.To ensure smooth flow of traffic on the Eastern Express Highway during the ongoing work, Shinde has also announced certain diversions.An official said, “All four lanes at the toll plaza instead of the regular two lanes will be opened up for the people commuting from Mumbai, heading towards Thane. Whereas for those traveling to Mumbai will have to take the Bara Bungalow route. They will have to take the Kopri circle through the Bara Bungalow route after which they can join the toll plaza road. The authorities are also going to extend the footover bridge till the end of the service road alongside the Eastern express highway near the Gurudwara on Teen Hath Naka.That way the road would be widened for the commuters, benefitting them especially during the peak hours.”

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