Mumbai: Lockdown and court battle delay coastal road work by a year

The BMC had organised a visit to the Coastal Road Project site at Napean Sea Road on Monday. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

First a court battle over clearances and now the COVID-19 pandemic have led to immense delay in the work on the Coastal Road project with the authorities concerned now saying that it would be completed only by July 2023, instead of the earlier deadline of 2022 end. While the work of installing the tunnel boring machine (TBM) has been started, excavation of the tunnels would start in January next year and take 18 months to be completed. However, till now only 20 per cent work of the project is complete.

The 10.5 km-long Coastal Road project was started in October 2018 and formally inaugurated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (then Shiv Sena chief) in December the same year.

Where chief engineer Vijay Nighot shared details regarding the work

"The work had a four-year deadline but the court battle delayed it by nine months and then due to the lockdown no work happened for another couple of months. This way the project got delayed by almost a year," said Vijay Nighot, chief engineer of the Coastal Road project.

According to Nighot, the delay would not increase the cost of the project. "The project faced some loss due to the court battle but then work resumed after two to three months of the lockdown. Till now 20 per cent work has been completed against the expected 30 per cent. About 80 per cent work will be completed by December 2022 and then the project will be ready by July 2023," he said.

As of now, installation work of the 12.19-km diameter TBM is on, which would take another month to be completed. Thereafter, excavation work of the 2.07-km long tunnels would start in January. Sources said that the machine can excavate around 6 to 8 metres of the tunnel each day and it would take nine months to complete one tunnel. Work on the tunnels would be completed by July 2022 and the rest would take another year. "The tunnels are 10 to 70 metres under the surface and one of the deepest in the country. They are the largest tunnels made by a TBM. The debris will be used to make a promenade," added Nighot.

Project cost, road length increase

. The project cost has increased to Rs 8,429 crore (without taxes) from R4,816 crore, which was estimated in Aug '17

. The total cost of the project is Rs 12,670 crore including taxes like water and sewerage, and supervision cost

. Initially the coastal road was a 9.8-km stretch from Princess Street Flyover to the south end of Bandra Worli Sea link but now the length has been increased to 10.58 km

Arm roads longer than main stretch

The length of the arm roads connecting various parts of the city to the main coastal road is longer than the actual stretch. The coastal road is 10.5-km long and the total length of its arm roads at three junctions is 15.3 km. The road has intersections at Amarsons Garden (4 arms), Haji Ali (8 arms) and Worli (6 arms) to connect the main road with various areas. Work on circular arms at Amarsons is being done along with the installing of TBM and construction of promenades.

Keep scrolling to read more news

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.

Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news