Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced on Sunday that the Mumbai coastal road connecting Marine Drive with Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) will be free of toll collections and its first phase will be opened after January 31.
“By January 31, the construction work for the phase between Worli and Marine Drive that comprises the undersea tunnel will be completed, soon after which we aim to open it for motorists. The remaining phase will be completed by May 31, following which the entire corridor will be operational,” Shinde said.
The project is a 10.58-km highspeed corridor connecting Marine Drive with the Bandra Worli Sea Link through a series of arterial roads, underground tunnels and traffic interchanges. This project will also have India’s first undersea tunnel originating from Girgaon Chowpatty and connecting Priyadarshini Park.
Shinde inspected the current status of the coastal road project work and also visited the undersea tunnel. He was accompanied by Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, along with other officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) Road on January 12. The state government had recently passed a resolution for a toll fee of Rs 250 on the MTHL Road for one-way travel.
“The infrastructure works in Mumbai are not meant to stop as we have already initiated work to connect Bandra-Versova with Virar in the next phase of the coastal road project. This will bring down travel time significantly. With MTHL, Mumbai will be connected with Navi Mumbai and Raigad. On the other side, satellite cities like Virar will be part of this direct connectivity,” Shinde said.
Construction for the Rs 12,271 crore coastal road project began in 2018 and the initial deadline for this project was November 2023. However, since the BMC had to implement a change in design in one of the bridges following resistance from the local fishing community, the deadline got pushed back by six months.
