Mumbai, June 24 (IANS) Activists of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Thursday demonstrated outside the office of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to protest shoddy work on the newly-inaugurated Lalbaug flyover in south-central Mumbai.

The 2.5 km flyover - the city's longest - was inaugurated by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan June 6.

"The flyover already has potholes and the top layer of the road has eroded after a brief spell of rain," said legislator Bala Nandgaonkar, who led the protest.

"The expansion joints are a problem giving a bumpy ride to those who imagined a smooth ride on this new flyover. The paver blocks at both the ends of the flyover have also started to come off," he added.

A delegation headed by Nandgaonkar met the MMRDA Commissioner Rahul Asthana and submitted a letter stating these and several other problems that the flyover has already started to give.

"We were assured of appropriate action. Asthana has told me that he will visit the spot and see what needs to be done," Nandgaonkar said.

The flyover was built to enable motorists cut short the travel time from Sion to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), a highly congested thoroughfare in south-central Mumbai, by 25 minutes.

The flyover will help vehicles bypass as many as seven vehicular and two pedestrian signals and cut down the travel time to less than half and was constructed at a cost of Rs.150 crore.