Mumbai coastal road project set to get Centre's nod

New Delhi: The Centre is all set to give approval to the ambitious Mumbai coastal road project which will connect south Mumbai to Kandivali in the north of the city.

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, after a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday, said that the process will be completed soon. He also said that the issue of Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) will be taken up in the upcoming Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) meeting.

"On the coastal road issue, we have decided that within a week we will give it approval and the process will be completed. "We have also decided to approve the sewage treatment plant which has to be set up in Mumbai. On the issue of MTHL, it will be processed in the upcoming FAC," Javadekar said.

Fadnavis said that while Javadekar has assured him that the final notification of the coastal road project, which will become a lifeline for the city, will be done within a week to ten days, during the meeting resolving of various issues regarding MTHL were discussed.

"We discussed around 13 proposals today. Mumbai's coastal road which will be like a lifeline to the city, its final notification has to come out.

"Environment Minister has assured that within a week, it will be given clearance and after that it will take around ten days for the notification to come out. This is one of the important decisions taken today," Fadnavis said.

The 35.6km-long coastal road project, to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 12,000 crore, was hanging fire for the past five years and opposed by transport activists and environmentalists alike.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister said that on MTHL issue, the state had some issues and there was an attempt in today's meeting to resolve them.

The 22-kilometre sea link, costing upwards of Rs 11,000 crore, is meant to connect Navi Mumbai with Sewri and also develop large parts of Navi Mumbai.