Marine Drive Western Corridor, a four-lane thoroughfare built by Tata Steel to keep Jamshedpur city roads free of heavy vehicles, has been decked up for Saturday's inauguration by chief minister Raghubar Das.
Jamshedpur's Marine Drive, as it is known through decades, has no maritime connection, but it is also a C-shaped boulevard like the fabled Mumbai original. Instead of the Arabian Sea, the steel city Marine Drive wends along river Subernarekha and, in a smaller measure, the Kharkai.
Tata Steel, whose logistics department is overseeing construction and beautification of the Rs 120 crore, 11km-long dual carriageway, has been able to remove illegal shanties and complete construction of a 5km-long service lane, clearing the decks for the much-awaited inauguration.
"Once lit up by LED lights, the road will look like Marine Drive of Mumbai," said Tata Steel corporate communications official Amresh Sinha. "The Tata Steel is happy to dedicate it to the masses."
The horticulture unit of Tata Steel subsidiary Jusco has been working overtime. The central verge is lush green with a grass turf. Ornamental plants like bougainvillea, Lantana camara and Nerium oleander have been planted, the space between each meticulously measured to ensure uniformity, over a metre on the central verge.
The chief minister, who will be accompanied by Tata Steel MD T. V Narendran and state civil and food supplies minister Saryu Roy, will lend a hand to plant saplings of foxtail palm trees, among other species of green, on vacant spaces alongside the road.
Road signage and cats' eye have been installed at three-meter intervals for commuter convenience and lane discipline.
Construction began in June 2012 and the initial deadline was June 2014. Subsequently, encroachments delayed completion and the project missed several deadlines, June 2014 and November 2014.
"We completed the construction of the main carriageway and also installed crash barriers, double-armed LED lights on the central verge by March 2015," said a senior official of Tata Steel logistics department, adding that ever since, trucks have been using the road.
"But adamant shanty residents in several pockets of Kadma were refusing to vacate. Finally, with a lot of persuasion, they agreed, which paved the way for the completion of the service lane and eventually the project," he explained.
There is only one 5-metre wide service lane on the eastern side of Marine Drive since river Subernarekha falls on the other side.
Later in the day, the chief minister will also lay the foundation of an elevated road from Tata Steel works to Burmamines Transport Park near the Hot Strip Mill (HSM) gate so that the Sakchi-Kalimati-Tatanagar via Burmamines end is also eased of heavy traffic.
Senior Tata Steel officials said the Burmamines road would be completed in the next two years.
"The elevated road near HSM gate is a flyover from Tata Steel works to truck parking area in Burmamines. It will ease traffic on Kalimati Road as all heavy vehicles from our plant will use this flyover," Sinha added.
