Marine Drive road-widening approved, promenade reclamation awaits green nod

The MMRDA has received the go-ahead for road widening at Marine Drive from eight lanes to 13, for a 300-metre stretch near the Charni Road railway station. This expansion into the sea is being done to accommodate traffic emerging from and into the under-construction Orange Gate to Marine Drive Tunnel that will take six of the eight existing lanes.

Barricades have been put up on the promenade near the proposed location of the tunnel ramps at Jawahar Bal Bhavan. “Without this lane expansion, traffic bottlenecks will severely compromise the efficiency and intended benefit of the tunnel infrastructure. However, due to space constraints on the landward side, the only viable option is to expand the existing promenade towards the sea. This approach is to ensure structural stability while also maintaining the iconic Queen’s Necklace arc,” noted the MMRDA in its permission to the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), as the area falls under CRZ zones.

Advertisement

While permission for lane widening was given, as it extends largely into the current promenade area, permission for reclaiming the sea for an extended promenade was deferred to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, as land filling into the sea would affect a CRZ-1 area.

With the present promenade compromised, the MMRDA is looking to build a promenade that is 120 metres long and 60 metres wide. The proposed promenade will be of around 2,300 sqm, of which 2,238 sqm falls in the CRZ 1B (intertidal zone) area.

The MCZMA noted the construction and backfilling would affect the benthic fauna, organisms living near or on the sea bed. As the area falls into CRZ – 1, the decision was recommended to the MoEFFC.

Advertisement

The MCZMA further noted that the construction work should only be done during the low tide, “to minimise sediment resuspension and avoid turbidity of water”.