25.12.11

Mumbai's coastal road plan

Nearly six months after it was formed amid widespread fears of damage to the city’s fragile ecology, the technical committee appointed by the state government to look into the feasibility of building coastal roads in Mumbai has completed its report. The 12-member panel headed by municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar has zeroed in on an alignment for the 29-km stretch–which will begin at the Marine Drive Gymkhana and end at the L&T unit in Madh–in the process creating 57.5 hectares of open spaces as a bonus. The project, officials said, could be completed in three years if permission comes on time and will cost the state exchequer about Rs 6,000 crore. To be constructed part on stilts, part on bridges, tunnels, existing roads and new roads on reclaimed land, it will create on most patches an extension of at least 100 m from the sea line. Of the total 29-km, about 7 km will be constructed by building new roads or widening the existing roads on reclaimed land. Ten km will come up on stilts to protect mangroves, 6.4 km will be constructed in the from of a tunnel, 3.4 km in widening roads, 1.2 km in bridges and a kilometre of elevated road on existing stretches. Committee members said wherever possible they have made crucial changes on the alignment to protect old fishing villages of Bandra and Khar, and mangroves in Juhu, Andheri and Malad. The 29-km stretch is part of an ambitious 320-km ring road, estimated to cost Rs 34,000 crore, around Mumbai. The extension for the eastern front and other viable components will be pursued later. The project has been criticized by the Koli community, original inhabitants of Mumbai, and experts who feel it is a violation of a 2011 CRZ notification that permits roads on stilts and not coastal roads by way of reclaiming land. The committee comprises representatives from the Union ministry of environment and forests, National Institute of Oceanography, Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay), J J School of Architecture, MMRDA’s transport division as well as architects Chandrashekhar Prabhu, Hafeez Contractor and P K Das.

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