British-era plots to be reclaimed to build Mumbai’s coastal road

Mumbai city news: The Rs15,000-crore coastal road will be built on these plots

The Maharashtra government plans to use 12 British-era plots to build Mumbai’s 33.2-km coastal road. So what’s the catch? These plots are all underwater. That’s why they’ve remained unused all these years.

The BMC is the project’s nodal agency. (HT File Photo)

Now, the government plans to reclaim them to facilitate construction of the coastal road connecting Nariman Point to Kandivli.

The ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) issued a notification on December 30 last year, permitting the reclamation of land for building coastal roads across the country. Earlier, land reclamation was only permitted for the construction of ports and harbours, jetties and sea links.

The Rs15,000-crore coastal road project, meant to ease traffic, will see a combination of under-sea tunnels, roads on reclaimed land and an elevated road. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the project’s nodal agency.

Sanjay Mukherjee, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said all the plots are in the Arabian Sea. “The British wanted to reclaim land, but this did not happen. The leases of nine plots have expired, while the leases of three others are valid for 99 years. The state government plans to cancel the lease agreement. We will now reclaim the land and use it to build the coastal road,” Mukherjee told HT.

“We have also received a no objection certificate from the state revenue department,” he added.