Ahead of upcoming BMC polls, party puts up hoardings promising a 20-minute ride from Nariman Point and Dahisar once the much touted, Rs 11,000 crore coastal road is ready
Graphic/Ravi Jadhav
Trust political parties to make the most bizarre promises right before the polls. With the city ready to go to polls on February 21, the Shiv Sena has come up with a poll promise that is hard to believe and implement. It has put up hoardings claiming that citizens will be able to travel between Nariman Point and Dahisar in 20 minutes once the coastal road is ready. Experts have, understandably, slammed the move and attempted to debunk it.
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Say it with a hoarding
The hoardings say, ‘Mahanagar Palika karnaar coastal road. Nariman Point teh Dahisar 20 mintat! Nigha susat’ (BMC is constructing the coastal road. Reach Dahisar from Nariman Point in 20 minutes. Speed up) The Sena wants motorists to travel on this proposed 29.2 km-long road that is set to cost a whopping Rs 11,000 crore, within 20 minutes, which means that vehicles will have to travel at speeds of 85-90 kmph. Currently, it takes at least three hours to reach Dahisar from Nariman Point, which is a good 40-45 km distance.
Experts say there is no planning for when the road will reach Bandra and merge into the other traffic. In addition, nothing has been planned beyond Kandivli, which will be close to the Dahisar toll booth.
Though it will be a direct road without signals, the 20 minute journey seems far fetched, especially considering Mumbai’s traffic, apathetic driving sense, little respect for traffic rules and violations that include over speeding and lane cutting. These are the reasons why there are speed restrictions even on good roads like the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) and Eastern Freeway.
Speed restrictions
For instance, on the BWSL, the speeds have been halved from 100 kmph to 50 kmph. The traffic on BWSL is well-known, as vehicles crawl, especially during peak hours, while approaching the toll booths. The government had promised motorists a smoother and faster ride on BWSL, but the 28-lakh vehicle population isn’t serving the purpose.
While the Eastern Freeway too is a good road, transport experts claim that drivers aren’t able to keep the speed at 80 kmph, due to which accidents keep occurring. The purpose of the restrictions was to ensure that motorists cover the distance within 16 minutes on this 40-kms odd Freeway. Despite being allowed to drive at 80 kmph, motorists still end up exceeding the limit.
BMC’s proposal
According to the BMC’s proposal, the civic body has divided this ambitious Rs 11,000 crore coastal road into two phases. The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) has given the go ahead to the southern stretch from Princess Street flyover to Worli and then connecting to BWSL, further north. The second phase would connect the road till Kandivli, not till Dahisar.
They have laid down conditions before recommending the southern stretch to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Recently, the civic body submitted two separate applications for clearance of the south and north phase of the coastal road. MCZMA laid down conditions such as re-plantation of mangroves, to ensure no fishing activity is hampered and that green belt development is implemented as mentioned in the environment management plan.
They also want that the construction equipment be fitted with mufflers and exhaust silencers along with ensuring that dust-suppression measures during construction. They also want to re-plant three times the mangroves that will be hacked.
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