Mumbai Coastal Road Project: How the bow-string arch bridge, linking coastal road to Bandra Worli Sea Link, will ease travel

The bridge’s inauguration will mark a significant step towards completing the first phase of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP), which was partially launched in March 2024.

How will the bow-string arch bridge ease travel?

Currently, the bow-string arch bridge is only partially open to northbound traffic (on the southbound carriageway).

With the opening of the northbound carriageway of the bow-string arch bridge on Sunday, the southbound vehicular traffic from the sea-link will be able to flow into the coastal road without exiting the route.

Following the inauguration, the entire arch bridge will become operational from Monday, enabling citizens to traverse to and fro Marine Drive and Bandra within a span of 10 minutes, which marks a significant cut in the current travel time of up to one hour. The entire stretch between Marine Drive and Bandra, including the bow-string arch bridge, will remain operational daily from 7 am to midnight.

The opening of the four new interchange arms — three at the Worli junction and one at Haji Ali — will also aid vehicles to exit towards Worli, Prabhadevi, Lower Parel, and Lotus Junction.

What parts of the MCRP have been launched so far?

MCRP’s first phase has now entered its final leg with the opening of the bow-string bridge. Over the past year, the arterial road has seen phase-wise openings — starting with the 9.29 km southern arm, including the twin tunnels, linking Worli to Marine Drive on March 11, 2024. The northern flank connecting Marine Drive and Haji Ali was opened on June 11, 2024, while the final 3.5 km stretch between Haji Ali and Worli became operational a month later.

The bow-string bridge was only partially opened for northbound traffic in September 2024.

Apart from this, one of the six interchanges at Worli has been opened so far with three more touted for inauguration on Sunday. At Haji Ali, which has a total of eight interchanging arms, six are already operational with the seventh one (from Haji Ali Juice centre to Marine Drive) set to open on Monday.

Data from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) show that between March and December 2024, more than 50 lakh vehicles have traversed through the newly launched thoroughfare — with an average of 18,000 to 20,000 vehicles using the route daily.

What next for the first phase of MCRP?

The civic body is now working to finish final works on three pending arms of the arterial route. These include two arms at Worli and one arm at Haji Ali.

Meanwhile, several projects have taken up within the ambit of the MCRP such as the development of a 70-acre land parcel as an open space, promenade between Breach Candy and Worli, pedestrian underpasses, and parking lots are yet to be completed. Senior officials said that a December-end target has been set for all the pending projects while the 70-acre open space will be entirely developed over the next two years.

Earlier this month, the BMC invited an Expression of Interest (EOI) from private companies and voluntary organisations for the design, development and maintenance of green open spaces on the periphery of the coastal road. According to civic officials, private entities take up the land parcels for a specific period to develop and maintain the garden and open space. The entire cost of development and maintenance will be borne by the private companies, officials said.

What is the status of the second phase of MCRP?

In its second phase, the BMC has charted plans to create a 22.93 km high-speed corridor linking Versova with Dahisar, covering Mumbai’s northern-western suburbs. As a part of the plan, a second set of tunnels, spanning nearly 4 km, is slated to run between Mindspace in Malad and Kandivali’s Charkop Gaon.

Senior officials said that work on the project has already taken off, in terms of procurement of permissions and approvals. Currently, the project has been approved by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and is now awaiting the nod from the Forest Department over the mangrove patch.