Stalled coastal road works cost BMC Rs 750 crore in 5 months

The Supreme Court (SC) vacating the Bombay High Court stay order on the construction work of Coastal Road project might have come as a big relief to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), "which has already incurred to tune of Rs 750 crore" following the stalling of the project work. A senior civic official, requesting anonymity, said the daily loss for no-construction work to the public exchequer could be around Rs 5 crore. It was on July 16 that the Bombay High Court order issued a stay on the Coastal Road project works.

The official said the final order is expected to be given by the SC in April 2020. "But since the interim permission to restart the work has been given, the appointed contractor can begin works this week. Some part payments, which was restricted due to the HC's stay order, could also be made to the contractor," he said.

BMC is carrying out the Phase 1 of the Coastal Road Project, a 9.98km-stretch linking Marine Drive to the south end of the Bandra-Worli sea link, at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore.

The ground-breaking ceremony, which was performed in December last year by Shiv Sena chief and present CM Uddhav Thackeray. The project will include an undersea tunnel running from Marine Lines, near the Princess Street flyover, to Priyadarshini Park, roads on reclaimed land and an elevated road. The project will reclaim around 186 hectares of land, out of which, 91 hectares will be developed as green space.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti, a fishermen's body, clarified that it was never against any development project conceptualised for the betterment of Mumbai including the Coastal Road and their only concern is over the movement of boats.

Damodar Tandel, president of the fishermen association told The Free Press Journal, “Like the existing Bandra-Worli Sea Link which has a gap between two pillars of approximately 100 metres similarly, for the coastal road project, the pillars which will be raised in seawater should be at a distance of 100 metres from one another. This will also reduce the number of pillars in the sea, causing less damage to marine life, besides ensuring smooth movement of boats while returning back to the shore.”