17% work of Mumbai coastal road completed so far: BMC chief

Representative image

Nearly 17 percent work of the ambitious eight-lane coastal road project, undertaken to ease traffic woes in Mumbai, has been completed so far, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Monday.

The 29.2 km-long seaside road project has been undertaken by the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to connect Marine Drive in south Mumbai to Borivali in north Mumbai.

Sharing the status of the Rs 12,721-crore project with reporters here, Chahal said the coastal road will be "functional in July 2023".

Started in October 2018, the coastal road project was earlier targeted to be completed by 2022, but it got delayed due the litigations.

"Substantial work has been done in the last couple of months with an expenditure of Rs 1,281 crore till November. Nearly 17 percent work of the project work has been completed till now," Chahal said.

About 175 acres of land has so far been reclaimed from the Arabian Sea for the project and another 102 acres is being reclaimed, the civic chief said.

A 400-metre-long tunnel boring machine of 39.6 feet diameter, which is the largest in India now, has been fully assembled on the reclaimed land and tunnel boring will commence from January 7, 2021, he said.

The boring machine, named Mavala, is going to build twin tunnels of 1,920 metre length between Marine Lines and Priyadarshini Park in south Mumbai.

The project work was stopped after the Bombay High Court in July 2019 quashed the Coastal Road Zone (CRZ) clearances granted to the project.

The work restarted after the Supreme Court in December last year stayed the HC's order.