Work begins on Mumbai’s coastal road, Shiv Sena chief lays foundation stone

Uddhav Thackeray kick-starts work on project to connect SoBo to suburbs

After around three years of planning for one of Mumbai’s most ambitious infrastructure projects, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday did the bhoomipujan of the Rs12,700 crore 29.98 km coastal road project. The laying of the foundation stone was done at Amarsons Garden in Cumbala Hill, where preparations for the construction has begun and said to be completed in four years.

The first phase of the road will involve constructing a 9.98-km stretch, which will connect Marine Drive to the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea link.

The inauguration of the eighth-lane coastal road, intended to connect the island city to the western suburbs, comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme to inaugurate two metro projects in Kalyan on December 18. The Sena chief has reportedly been dropped out of the guest list for the programme.

In an apparent tit-for-tat measure, the BJP leaders from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the state government were not invited or present for the ceremony.

Thackeray said, “One of the biggest promises made to the people of Mumbai by the Shiv Sena is now becoming a reality. We will complete it in four years as promised.”

Thackeray thanked the BJP-led state and central governments for cooperating with Mumbai, and processing all permissions for the project quickly. However, he said, “There are many projects that will benefit the common Mumbaiite, but are stuck at the state and central government level. I’m requesting the government to process permissions for such projects too.”

Taking a dig at BJP’s ‘achche din’ line, mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar said, “We cannot say if achche din have arrived, but the Sena is fulfilling the promises it made to the people of Mumbai.”

The first phase of the road will involve constructing a 9.98-km stretch, which will connect Marine Drive to the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea link.

Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said, “The project will be carried out with transparency and will be completed in a time-bound manner. For the first time, we have introduced a clause in the tendering agreement that BMC will not pay the contractor any more money. If the project is not completed in the stipulated time of four years. We also introduced a lot of competition for the bidders to maintain transparency.”

The BMC had floated global tenders, received responses from 17 national and international bidders, and received 13 bids in total. “This has ensured that the project construction meets international standards,” Uddhav Thackeray said.

Consultation for design of the project was crowdsourced from international consultants, Mehta said. He added, “The design for the project was published by BMC, and a lot of international consultants gave feedback about the design, free.”