Marine Drive heritage buildings face risk from proposed MMRDA twin tunnel project

In 2018, UNESCO had identified several buildings at Marine Drive for their unique Victorian Gothic and Art Deco-styled architecture and labelled them as one of the World Heritage Sites.

“The original plan was proposed without carrying out any soil study. All the buildings present in the heritage precinct have foundations made of wooden piles. Blasting work would damage the foundation of the buildings posing a threat to those living inside,” Vivek Desai, a 90-year-old resident of Matru Chhaya building at Marine Drive, told The Indian Express.

The MMRDA is supposed to begin excavation work for the tunnel from early 2026. After the plan was mooted, the residents had written to the MMRDA authorities as well as the local elected representatives demanding an alternate route for the tunnel. The residents have proposed two alternatives for the project — rerouting the tunnel via Girgaon Chowpatty and another from near Bal Bhavan. The residents stated that after a series of deliberations, the Bal Bhavan location near Charni Road was selected. When The Indian Express contacted the MMRDA, a spokesperson maintained that now that the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) has imposed the Model Code of Conduct owing to the local body polls, they will not provide any official comment. Meanwhile, the old plan continues to be on MMRDA’s website.

Harshita Narwekar, former BJP corporator from south Mumbai, told The Indian Express, “We recently held a joint meeting with the residents and our MLA, where we proposed that the alternate location at Bal Bhavan should be considered as the final option instead of the D road in Marine Drive. The work order for this project is being already awarded and the TBM is also in place, so right now the authorities are taking up a new traffic simulation study on the basis of alternate plan.” Earlier this month, Narwekar held a meeting with citizens on this issue.

Locals also maintained that the overall plan for the project was chalked out without consulting them initially. “The project was initially planned and proposed without any citizen’s consultations. These are big ticket infrastructure projects and the administration should have consulted us because the excavation work would be disruptive to our buildings. The administration has assured us that they will come up with an alternative plan at the earliest,” said Ashok Gupta, vice president of the Marine Drive Citizens Association and a resident of the Keval Mahal heritage building.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time that the residents living in the heritage buildings at Marine Drive are facing issues due to construction work. When the excavation work for the underground tunnels of the Coastal Road was underway in 2022, several residents flagged that the interiors of their house experienced vibration. Following this, the local authorities had installed meters to measure the vibration levels.

“During the Coastal Road work, the administration had removed the tetrapods from the sea, for which the vibration could be felt in some houses. This problem got resolved after the tetrapods were put back again. However, the current issue is more serious since it involves blasting,” Gupta said.