Proposal for a 29 km stretch to link Bandra and Borivli was withdrawn due to environmental issues and lack of inter-agency coordination
The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) on Wednesday approved the 13.43 km coastal road that aims to connect Princess Street flyover to Worli.
According to a senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official, the committee has approved the south side —Princess Street flyover to Worli end but decided to withdraw the North side-Bandra end of the sea link to Borivli junction proposal.
On the proposed south side coastal road, there will be 3.45 km tunnel that will be between Princess flyover, Napean Sea Road near Priyadarshani Park. The entire stretch will be a toll-free road.
"We have given the green signal to the coastal road —Princess flyover to Worli end project. Now, it will be sent to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for their final approval. After that, BMC will do the execution work of this proposed coastal road," said Satish Gavai, Principal Secretary of State Environment department.
Gavai said that this project will decongest the traffic, besides reducing the air and noise pollution. "This road will be a big relief for South Mumbai and western suburb commuters. In this proposed route, no mangroves are disturbed. Moreover, we do not have environmental issues," he added.
The inter-change on this road has been demarcated at Princes Flyover and Amarsons Garden. "The funding is not the issue. BMC has already raised Rs 5,000 crore through the fungible floor space index as premium charges for the construction of this proposed coastal road. Let the Union Government approve the project proposal, soon work will start. We target to complete the project in the next three years," a senior BMC official said on condition of anonymity.
He added that the committee had taken the decision of withdrawing another 29 km of Bandra to Borivli coastal road project. "In this western suburb stretch, we were facing a lot of environmental issues. Besides, there was no coordination among government agencies such as MMRDA, MSRDC and BMC. Therefore, we decided to withdraw this proposal and push only south side," he said.
Earlier Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis clarified that as per the norms, the government must replant three times the damaged mangroves in different parts of the city and the state. "However, our state officials wrote (to) the c\Centre and told them that they would replant six times. It was not required six time despite the norms of three times so we faced the re plantation issue. Now, we are preparing the amended proposal and will be resend to centre again," Fadnavis said.
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