The Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP) is likely to be inaugurated on February 28. Sources in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that the high speed corridor is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi remotely during his visit to Yavatmal, scheduled for the same day. The MCRP was initially supposed to be inaugurated on February 19 during PM Modi's visit to Mumbai to inaugurate a slew of civic infrastructure projects. However, the inauguration was deferred following the postponement of the PM's visit. “There’s a possibility that the project will be inaugurated on February 28 virtually by PM Modi during his visit to Yavatmal, however, there is no clarity about this date as of yet since the BMC is awaiting a confirmation from the chief minister’s office,” an official said on Friday. With the code of conduct expected to kick in by mid March, BMC officials said it will be imperative to inaugurate the project before that. Civic officials said the PM will inaugurate the first phase of this project, which will only allow south bound traffic to use the corridor. The officials also maintained that the MCRP will be operational only between Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm. “At present, the coastal road is 85% complete on the whole, while the phase that is to inaugurated is 99% ready. Since 15% of the total work is still remaining, the road will be shut on weekends and in the night on weekdays to ensure remaining civil works are carried out during this period,” the official added. In the first phase, vehicles travelling from Worli to Marine Drive will be able to use this corridor. The officials also said that each of the arms in Amarson's, Haji Ali and Worli will be made available for motorists in the current phase and the entire corridor is likely to be operational by May-end. The Rs 13,000 crore MCRP will have two roads each for north and south bound four lanes. Each of these roads will have an additional lane dedicated to public buses. They will also have a 2.07-km underground tunnel that will originate from Girgaon and run under the Arabian Sea, connecting Girgaon Chowpatty, and move northwards from under Malabar Hill. The other end of these tunnels will be at Priyadarshini Park.
