Mumbai: Shiv Sena goes fast and furious in making coastal road promise

GraphicRavi JadhavTrust 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 itSay it with a hoardingThe hoardings say lsquoMahanagar Palika karnaar coastal road Nariman Point teh Dahisar 20 mintat Nigha susatrsquo 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 292 kmlong road that is set to cost a whopping Rs 11000 crore within 20 minutes which means that vehicles will have to travel at speeds of 8590 kmph Currently it takes at least three hours to reach Dahisar from Nariman Point which is a good 4045 km distanceExperts 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 boothThough it will be a direct road without signals the 20 minute journey seems far fetched especially considering Mumbairsquos 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 BandraWorli Sea Link BWSL and Eastern FreewaySpeed restrictionsFor instance on the BWSL the speeds have been halved from 100 kmph to 50 kmph The traffic on BWSL is wellknown 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 28lakh vehicle population isnrsquot serving the purposeWhile the Eastern Freeway too is a good road transport experts claim that drivers arenrsquot 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 40kms odd Freeway Despite being allowed to drive at 80 kmph motorists still end up exceeding the limitBMCrsquos proposalAccording to the BMCrsquos proposal the civic body has divided this ambitious Rs 11000 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 DahisarThey 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 replantation of mangroves to ensure no fishing activity is hampered and that green belt development is implemented as mentioned in the environment management planThey also want that the construction equipment be fitted with mufflers and exhaust silencers along with ensuring that dustsuppression measures during construction They also want to replant three times the mangroves that will be hacked