The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) wants the state government to be cautious while constructing the coastal freeway, a 35.6-km coastal road along the city's western waterfront. It has categorically refused to relax the sea's high tide line (HTL) regulation so that haphazard construction on the landward side does not further deface the city's coastline between Nariman Point and Kandivli.

While discussing the plan with a delegation comprising Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, city MP Poonam Mahajan and senior officials in New Delhi on Saturday, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar was very specific on the issues that he thought would be detrimental to the city's environment in view of the coastal road, said sources.