The making of an urban absurdity

In the past year, many urban projects have raised a common question: how do designs that look obviously problematic manage to get approved and end up cast in concrete?

- Manoj Sharma

Krishna Gupta, an advocate and activist in Mira-Bhayandar, Mumbai, had seen a brand-new ₹100-crore double-decker flyover take shape over several months.

What puzzled him was its curious design: four lanes abruptly narrowed into two, with no warning, signage or proper transition. Just a sudden concrete wall. Gupta raised his concerns informally with officials, but says he was heard and ignored.

Meanwhile, on January 26 — Republic Day — a local filmed the flyover and posted the video on ‘Gems of Mira Bhayandar’, a social media account. Within hours, it had gone viral. The memes came fast and merciless.

The next day, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) replied on its X handle: “The flyover does not ‘suddenly narrow’. The transition from four lanes to two lanes is not a design flaw, but is based on available road-width constraints and future network planning.”

It said the flyover had been designed with two lanes for Bhayandar East and “future connecting two lanes for Bhayandar West”. Locals were not convinced.

Two days later, Gupta wrote a complaint to the concerned authorities, raising several critical questions about the flyover. He asked why a four-lane flyover had been abruptly reduced to two lanes midway without providing the scientifically designed taper and transition length mandated under Indian Roads Congress (IRC) norms.

He also questioned whether any Road Safety Audit or Traffic Impact Assessment had been conducted and, if so, how such a high-risk bottleneck had been cleared. He further demanded to know who proposed, vetted and approved the design, and on what basis MMRDA was claiming a “future expansion” when no sanctioned plan, timeline, budget or space for additional lanes appeared to exist.