Mumbai Coastal Road Project: BMC extends bid deadline for open space development until March 7
The plans for open space along the Mumbai Coastal Road Project have also drawn concerns from citizens.
3 min read
At present, there are three traffic interchanges of Coastal Road at Amarson’s, Haji Ali and Worli. (Express File Photo)The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it will push the deadline for its Expression of Interest (EOI) for the development and maintenance of the open spaces along the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP) to March 7 after receiving only one bid until Tuesday.
The extension of the deadline has come amid appeals for additional time by nearly four to five corporates, who have also expressed interest in developing the land parcel, to study the expansive 70-hectare land along MCRP’s periphery to chalk up a road map for the development of the space. “Since the land parcel is huge, the interested parties require more time to study the space, evaluate the costs of development, maintenance etc,” said a source privy to the developments.
Following the appointment of the private agency, the parties will submit their proposals with the designs for the open spaces, which will then be sent to Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani for approval. After procuring the commissioner’s nod, the civic body will kick off work on the development of the expansive land parcel. While works on the 7.5-km promenade are likely to be completed by March 2025, civic chief Gagrani has said that the development of the open space is likely to take two years.
Of the 111 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea to develop MCRP, BMC has earmarked 70 hectares to develop an open landscape encompassing green pockets, gardens, cycling tracks and amphitheatres. Within the ambit of this landscape, BMC is developing a Marine Drive-like 7.5 km long promenade along the coast which accounts for nearly 11 hectares while the median of the arterial road — accounts for 5 hectares of the open space — is being beautified by Tata Sons Limited.
For the rest of the 53 hectares, BMC is eyeing to rope in private entities to develop and maintain the open space, for which the civic body invited an EoI from private companies and voluntary organisations for the design, development, and maintenance of the massive land parcel. Even as this EOI closed on Tuesday (February 11), BMC received only one submission.
Meanwhile, the plans for open space have also drawn concerns from citizens who recently launched an online petition calling for the establishment of an urban coastal forest flush with dense, native trees like peepal and banyan at the hectares-wide land parcel in the periphery of the arterial road.
You May Like
