Coronavirus may delay coastal road as Chinese experts face visa trouble

The city’s ambitious ₹13,141-crore coastal road project is also likely to be hit by China’s coronavirus epidemic as tunnelling for the 9.8-km link depends on equipment

The city’s ambitious ₹13,141-crore coastal road project is also likely to be hit by China’s coronavirus epidemic as tunnelling for the 9.8-km link depends on equipment and manpower from the country.

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The tunnelling work on the western seafront, from Girgaum Chowpatty to Malabar Hill, was tentatively scheduled to start from May. The tunnel boring machine (TBM) being imported from Shanghai was set to reach the city by April. However, 25 experts from China, who were to deliver and assemble the TBM in Mumbai, are not getting visas owing to the outbreak.

According to a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official, the assembling of the TBM and handover would take up to two months, until which the actual tunnelling work cannot start.

The BMC, which is implementing the project, has got in touch the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informally to work out a solution.

A senior BMC official said, “So far, there is no issue in importing the TBM. Although the more the delivery date gets delayed, there could be logistics issues, etc, in China. The problem we are facing is that the members of the manufacturing company — all Chinese nationals — were to come to Mumbai to assemble the machine and explain its usage to the contractor here. They are not getting visas.”

Jayashree Bhoj, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said, “The TBM is coming from Shanghai, which is around 1,600km away from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. We are working towards a solution and are in touch with several authorities informally. We will formally approach the agencies, in case we do not reach a solution in the next few days.”

The coastal road project’s completion has been postponed to mid-2023 and may now get delayed further. According to the tentative schedule, the TBM was to leave from China on March 1 and reach Mumbai after a month. The whole process of transporting the TBM to the site and getting clearances from customs was estimated to take another month.

For this schedule to work out, the Chinese team has to reach Mumbai latest by April, if the cargo is sent earlier. However, BMC officials said the entire schedule may now have to be reworked. They are hoping to start tunnelling work by August.

The TBM will be 12.19-m wide and will drill the 3.4-km-long twin tunnels, which will run partially under the sea between Girgaum Chowpatty and Malabar Hill, as part of the 9.98-km coastal road.

Coastal road, a pet project of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, is already running behind schedule after the Bombay high court stayed the work in July 2019 for want of environment clearance. After BMC challenged the stay in the Supreme Court, pointing out that the project was exempted from the clearance and environment assessment for it had been completed, the apex court stayed the HC order in December 2019