Plan for Mumbai’s Cuffe Parade-like Central Park to be ready soon

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will allot contracts to the consultant next week.

The design for Mumbai’s ambitious 300-acre park, modelled on the lines of the Central Park in New York City, will be ready by next year. Part of the Arabian Sea will be reclaimed to create space for the park at Cuffe Parade. Civic officials expect the park to be ready by 2023.

Part of the Arabian Sea will be reclaimed to create space for the park at Cuffe Parade. (FILE)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will allot contracts to the consultant next week. The firm will be incharge of the entire process – from designing the park and themes, to framing tenders for the construction.

Vijay Singhal, additional municipal commissioner incharge of the gardens department, said, “We are looking at an area of 300 acres for the park. The consultant will design the look and decide the amenities (gardens, playgrounds, recreational areas and facilities). The contract outlines his role in landscaping the park, its entrances, and compounds. He will study and present a report on how the reclamation can be done, how much debris would be needed, from where will it be sourced, and the sort of engineering and technology needed for it.”

Currently, BMC has hired Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) to conduct an oceanographic survey to understand the impact of the park on the marine ecosystem, and climate along the city’s coastline. It has also hired National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) for terrestrial environment impact assessment – the effect of the project on traffic, air and noise pollution, residents’ lifestyles, and fisherfolk’s livelihood. The consultant will take the findings of the two surveys, which are expected to be completed by mid-2018, into account while drafting the report.

In January, BMC first floated tenders to hire a consultant to design the park. However, it received a single bid, and was forced to refloat the tenders. A civic official associated with the process said, “This time too, we received a single bid from the same bidder. But the project requires expertise that is difficult to find. So we’ll go ahead and award the contract to the bidder.”