Watch | ‘Engineering marvel’: Four lanes suddenly turn into two on Mumbai flyover, spark social media ridicule

A newly built flyover in Mumbai's Mira-Bhayandar area, part of the city's Metro Line 9 project, drew sharp reaction from social media users after a video showing a four-lane flyover abruptly narrows to just two lanes went viral on X. Several people took a dig at the planners of the structure and raised concerns that it can become a cause of accident endandering lives of commuters and traffic jams.

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the agency tasked with designing and building the flyover, defended the construction, saying that narrowing is not a design flaw; it was deliberately done based on available road width constraints and future network planning.

Meanwhile, the Congress party took a dig at the construction, calling it a "miracle' of engineering in Maharashtra and claimed that such "deadly miracles" became commonplace under the BJP governments, whether in Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh (hinting at a flyover in Indore, featuring a sharp 90-degree turn).

"The public may be distressed or lose lives in accidents, but the government couldn't care less—not a shred of responsibility or accountability," it added.

Explaining the thought behind the design, the MMRDA said "Provision has been kept for future widening, "wherein the outer side of the flyover on both carriageways will be extended by an additional 1+1 lane to ensure improved east–west traffic continuity. The proposal is currently at the planning stage and will be taken up in coordination with MBMC, after obtaining approvals from the competent authorities".

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The authority clarified the current utility of the flyover, saying, "At present, the flyover has been designed primarily for traffic dispersal and congestion reduction in the Mira–Bhayander area. Necessary safety measures have been incorporated, including rumble strips, delineators, adequate signage, retro-reflective tags, directional boards, and anti-crash barriers".

Addressing safety concerns, it assured that "Traffic police guidance is being actively sought for any additional vehicular safety measures prior to opening the flyover for public use".

X users blast MMDRA

Dissatisfied with the MMDRA's explanation, several X users called out the authority for its design flaw "I’m embarrassed something like this was even conceived of, let alone being justified in a 'fact check'. I’m guessing MMDRA will come up with more such 'fact checks' when the inevitable fatalities start rolling in," a user said.

"Your clarification is equally flawed as the design...it is diaster waiting to happen, it should have been slow and longer merge...instead of abrupt transition...it will create a bottleneck and can also cause accidents," another user pointed out.