Mumbai Coastal Road Project – Economics

Table of Contents

CURRENT AFFAIR

The Supreme Court stayed a Bombay High Court order that had quashed Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance granted to the southern part of Mumbai’s coastal road project.

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai, the financial capital of India was originally planned as one arm of a longer sea link.
The longer one would connect Bandra, queen of the suburbs, with Nariman Point, the commercial hub of south Mumbai.
The Worli-Haji Ali Sea Link was already tendered out, in 2011, when the then Chief Minister (CM) suggested replacing it with a coastal road.
The government appointed a technical committee and it reported the approximate cost of the sea link and for the reclamation of land along the coast for a seaside highway.
The Worli-Haji Ali Sea Link project was cancelled abruptly and replaced with plans for a coastal road connecting Nariman Point with Kandivali, a suburb towards the northern end of the western seaboard.

Reclamation – In June 2015, the central government gave permissions for the reclamation for the project.
First proposal – In 2016, the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) accorded sanction.
Revised proposal – In October 2016, the BMC submitted a revised proposal to the MCZMA, limiting it to the first phase of the project.

Environmentalists, activists and fishermen opposed the project.
They have claimed the project lacks a mandatory prior Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) clearance under the EIA notification of 2006.
National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) report flawed as it relied on only 14 days’ pre-monsoon data.
Fishermen also claimed that the reclamation will destroy shallow water fishing and increase the turbidity of water, and that the narrow gaps between pillars will hinder movement of fishing boats.

The coastal road will be a combination of,
Roads on stilts;
Roads built on reclamation, a small sea link our bridge portion,
A proposed under-sea tunnel,
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
The rest of the highway is to be considered in Phase 2, for which clearances are still to be sought.

After the SC stayed the Bombay HC’s July order, the BMC will resume reclamation work at four points – Priyadarshini Park, Napeansea Road, Haji Ali and Worli.