AMN / MUMBAI
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday inaugurated the first phase of Mumbai’s Coastal Road. Mr. Shinde along with his deputies, Mr. Devendra Fadnavis and Mr. Ajit Pawar flagged off an electric bus ferrying women and a vintage car rally to mark the opening of the nine-kilometre-long corridor from Worli to Marine Drive.
Calling the project an engineering marvel, Mr. Shinde said the road is being built using advanced technology. He added that Mumbai will get a world-class Central Park spread over around 300 acres as 175 acres of green space is being developed as part of the coastal road project, besides 120 acres of racecourse land. The Chief Minister informed that the road is being renamed Dharmaveer, Swarajya Rakshak Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Mumbai Coastal Road, adding that all safety measures are in place to ensure the safety of citizens using the road. Mr. Shinde stated that projects like Atal Setu and Coastal Road will make traveling from one part of Mumbai to another, an easy and hassle-free affair. He said that the timely completion of these projects will also help in reducing pollution besides saving time and fuel. Taking a dig at his predecessor, former Chief Minister for ignoring the demands of the Koli community, Mr. Shinde said his government not only got the necessary environmental approvals but also agreed to the demand of the local Koli community to increase the span to 120 metres so that the fishing activity is not affected.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the partial opening of the road is expected to bring down travel time between Marine Drive and Worli to less than 10 minutes, which usually takes 45-50 minutes during peak hours. While currently, only the southbound arm has been opened, the northbound road is likely to be opened in May this year after the completion of the connecting bridge between the Coastal Road and Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
With the construction work still on, heavy vehicles will not be allowed to travel on the stretch. Small and light vehicles can use the toll-free road from 8 am to 8 pm. The work on the ambitious Coastal Road project started in October 2018 at a projected cost of over fourteen thousand crore rupees.