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Journalism of Courage
With civil work for Mumbai Coastal Road’s second phase set to begin from September first week, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed roping in hundreds of civil engineers from its multiple departments, as 200-plus civil engineers will be required for the project’s supervision.
“To ensure the project is executed seamlessly, we will be deploying civic officials with civil engineering degrees from various departments, including roads, sewerage, and water supply. These officials will be responsible for supervising the contractors and the day-to-day progress of the job, along with other technicalities,” said a senior BMC official.
The BMC administration has thus mooted the deployment of nearly 200 additional officers to the bridges department, a proposal that is currently awaiting clearance from the municipal commissioner.
Officials said the bridges department does not have adequate manpower for all the projects it is executing.
“At present, there are several other key projects of the bridges department that are ongoing, including Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR). Besides this, there are several other projects of new bridge construction and maintenance of existing facilities that are in the pipeline. We will need manpower for this also. So we have to bank on other departments for manpower,” an official said.
The first phase of Mumbai Coastal Road, which connects Marine Drive with the Bandra Worli Sea Link, was inaugurated last year. For the construction and maintenance of this 10-km-long phase, civic authorities had constituted a dedicated department. However, the BMC’s bridges department is executing the second phase.
Asked why the dedicated department, set up under the supervision of a chief engineer, was not assigned the task of executing the second phase, an official said, “The department is responsible for the maintenance of the ready phase, and ancillary work like setting up open spaces and creating walkways also remains. Therefore, there will be extra pressure on that department.”
Phase two of the coastal road will have a series of underground tunnels, a cable-stayed bridge, and vehicular interchanges that will improve north-south connectivity.
BMC officials said the civil work for the coastal road would begin by September first week. This includes the mobilisation of machinery as well as setting up casting yards. The boring of twin tunnels that will connect Mindspace at Malad with Charkop is set to begin from early 2027, and the tunnel boring machine is set to arrive early next year, according to the officials.
The proposed second phase of the coastal road has been divided into six different packages. Package A will cover the 4.5 km between Versova and Bangur Nagar (Goregaon), and package B will cover the 1.66 km between Bangur Nagar and Mindspace. The packages C and D will include twin tunnels—3.9 km long—connecting Mindspace with Charkop in Kandivali. Package E will be 3.78 km long, connecting Charkop with Gorai, and package F will cover the 3.69 km between Gorai and Dahisar.
From Dahisar, the civic authorities are constructing an elevated corridor of 5.6 km that will extend till Bhayander in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The coastal road will also provide connectivity with GMLR, an east-west connector being constructed by the Mumbai civic body.
The cost of these two phases, covering 20 km in total, has been pegged at Rs 20,000 crore. The BMC secured environmental clearances for the project last year and started the on-ground work this year.
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