Mumbai's Western Freeway snippets

Bids from consultants for Mumbai’s Rs.8,000-crore coastal freeway project have been invited for a second time. The freeway would connect the west coast of the city from Nariman Point to Malad-Kandivli and replace the plan to link the coast entirely through sea links.
Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), who is in charge of roads, said the last time the BMC had put out a tender it had received a single response. “Thereafter, a couple of reputed firms conveyed that they too would have bid had they been given more time. Hence, we have released a new tender,” he said.

The ambitious project involves building a 35.6-km road that would run from MLA Hostel at Nariman Point to Malad-Kandivli. Along the way it would comprise tunnels, sea links, reclaimed roads and elevated roads.
The consultant would have to prepare the feasibility report, a detailed project report, a rough design, calculations for the area to be reclaimed and obtain clearances from various agencies for the construction. The consultant would also have to prepare the tenders based on which bids would be invited to construct the coastal road as well as promenades and open spaces along the entire route. It is envisaged that the reclamation would help create 75 hectares of open spaces.
The consultants would be given 18 months to complete the spadework. “Thereafter the actual tenders would be floated and bids invited. The project is likely to be completed by 2018-19,” said an official source.
Gupta said the current estimate of Rs.8,000 crore could be revised. The consultants are expected to arrive at a more correct estimate of the cost after a detailed study of the project. While part of the funds for the route would be raised through the civic budget, the BMC would also seek funds from the state and Centre for the project. The cost would be recovered through tolls, unlike the Eastern Freeway, where there is no toll. The Eastern Freeway will be commissioned on May 1.
The western freeway is chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s dream project and expected to replace the sealink project.
In January 2012, an 11-member expert technical committee had submitted its final report on the coastal road plan to the chief minister. “The coastal freeway system (to be) built in a cost effective manner is in eminent public interest,” the committee had said. “It is not merely a road infrastructure project, but one that ameliorates health hazards posed by extreme traffic congestion and generates large public spaces.”
Critics of the coastal road had pointed to the reclamation that had to be undertaken and also cited possible environmental degradation along the western coast.