Water seepage in coastal road tunnel: CM says no problems, announces opening of north bound second leg on June 10
Sena UBT’s Aaditya Thackeray in a post criticised the state government for haphazardly opening the coastal road in order to claim electoral credit.
3 min read
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani during their inspection of the Coastal Road Tunnel where a water leakage was reported, in Mumbai, Tuesday (PTI)A recent incident of water seepage inside the tunnels of Mumbai’s Coastal Road has led to a political slugfest in Mumbai with Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator, Aaditya Thackeray taking shots at each other.
Meanwhile, Shinde who was carrying out an inspection visit at the tunnels on Tuesday also announced that the northbound arm of the coastal road will be opened on June 10 for vehicles.
Earlier on Monday, water seepage was seen in the walls of the coastal road tunnels. Meanwhile, officials from the civic body said that the water was seeping from an expansion joint and that there was no leakage.
An expansion joint in civil engineering terms is a joint or a gap that is designed to permit expansion and contraction of the structure during temperature changes. “These joints have a minimum 20 metres gap between them, to free contraction and expansion during a temperature change. The inflow of seepage is taking place through these joints which could be treated by waterproofing measures such as employing injection waterproofing and grouting to seal the leaks immediately. This is a temporary issue and it would not occur after waterproofing is completed,” said the official.
CM Shinde also reiterated this in a post on X, stating that the leakages “posed no threat”. Following this, Sena UBT’s Aaditya Thackeray in a post criticised the state government for haphazardly opening the coastal road in order to claim electoral credit.
“Inaugurations were planned multiple times in February, and yet as I pointed out back then, only for 1 lane. Finally, the 1 (southbound) lane was opened hurriedly, to claim electoral credit for our project, before elections. The 1 lane works from 8 am to about 6 pm! Then we were given timelines that the entire road would be opened by March, then April, then May. Now it’s almost June. Will the @mybmc give an official update on the final date of opening it up to citizens? More so, when we form the government, we will investigate the delay, in detail,” read his post from social media site X.
Shinde who carried out an inspection on Tuesday at the tunnel said, “There’s no question of taking credit. Coastal Road has benefitted the city of Mumbai and made life easy for Mumbaikars, and we have also seen how actor, Amitabh Bacchan also spoke about the benefit of this project publicly.”
“The second arm of the coastal road will be operational from June 10. This part will cater to northbound traffic between Haji Ali and Marine Drive, while the complete stretch of coastal road between Marine Drive and Sea Link will be carried out by October end this year,” Shinde said.
You May Like
