The Coastal Road, like most projects conceived by the government, does not seem to be an investment towards making an equitable facility in a society with democratic values and polity. In absence of an efficient road public transport, even the 57.5 hectares of ‘open spaces’ created by the project becomes inaccessible to the majority of 125 lakh resident Mumbai citizens.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has prepared a plan for a ‘Coastal Road’ on the western sea front. This is being planned by widening the road by ‘reclaiming’ land 100m into the sea from the present sea line, providing elevated roads at certain sections, providing road over stilts at inter tidal zones where mangroves exist, bridges where required, connect to the Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL), and tunnels under the Malabar Hill and Marine Drive. This road shall be a 5+5 lane ‘highway’, (though the BWSL is of only 4+4 lane width) to let motorcars to travel at high speeds. It also proposes to provide as a ‘bonus’ some 57.5 hectares (Ha) of open spaces. The open space is equivalent to a width of about 20m, the entire length. Only a detailed report will reveal how easily this is accessible to pedestrians and public transport users, especially those in the denser interior parts of Mumbai. (Click here for map depiction)

It is said to follow the CRZ-2011 norms, which apparently has been devised for Mumbai to accommodate a coastal road concept proposed in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA) Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS-2008) Report and further supported by the Singapore-based Urban Development Consultants in their “Surbana” vision plan. While the Union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) is likely to give a green signal to this project, the only hurdle could be that there is the extension of the sea line by 100m, which if the MoEF is convinced that the Coastal Road is most necessary from the ‘traffic decongestion’ point of view will lessen air and noise pollution, giving green signal will be absolutely no hurdle at all.

The question to ask is,
(a) is the Sea Link too expensive (Rs15,000 crore)?
(b) that other means of lessening the overall road congestion been seriously considered, such as introducing BRT (bus rapid transport) system whereby public transport gets a boost over use of private vehicles leading to significant lowering of air and noise pollution all over Mumbai?
 

The 29km of Coastal Road along the west coast of Mumbai is estimated to cost Rs6,000 crore, much less than Rs15,000 crore for the Sea Link right along from Versova to Nariman Point. It is part of the "Ring Road Concept" propounded by planning consultants whose background is to develop systems which are motorcar-centric, rather than mobility of the people as an objective. To that extent it is flawed. Some points to consider by the planners, the Government of Maharashtra and all the stake holders are:

1. Only 2.8% of Mumbai population use motorcars. A sea link or Coastal Road will cater to only a small fraction of this small proportion of Mumbai’s population, for which Rs6,000 crore is being sought on a priority basis.

2. Of the 125 lakh resident Mumbai population (Census 2011), a majority of the population use suburban railway system (75 lakh) and BEST bus transport users (38 lakh, 75% of whom use railway in addition) are subjected to super crush load and road congestion respectively. 3.1% using bicycles and 44% who exclusively walk to work and on the whole, almost 95% of Mumbai population walk some distance or the other. These large proportion of users of carbon neutral modes of transit have very little to feel safe and comfortable with the existing infrastructure and the currently proposed infrastructures such as coastal roads or sea links.

3. The ring roads concept of urban development is quite understandable for urban areas which have growth possibilities in all directions. With the main central business district (CBD) located at the centre, minor CBDs work out well along the inner or outer rings or if the sprawl is much larger, extra outer ring roads. For the MCGM areas in Mumbai, this concept is inappropriate as a major length of the “Ring Road” has no developmental possibility at all as far as minor CBDs are concerned and again, not at all for any other purpose on the seaward side.

4. As has been the case with utilization of BWSL, this coastal road will be poorly utilized in numbers as well as proportion of population. In comparison to the sea link option, the coastal road being almost one-third the cost, purely in terms of economic consideration between the two options only, the coastal road scores over the sea link. It’s providing 57.5 Ha of open space as bonus also goes in its favour. However, the project does not address the mobility issue of 95% of Mumbai population.

5. The coastal road as well as a sea link will be of little value to the population (38 lakh) using BEST buses and thereby even to possible users of BRTS—if BRTS is brought onto the agenda of Mumbai Mobility plan.

6. For Rs6,000 crore, a network of 400 km of BRT system could be established, increasing mobility of Mumbai on the whole, providing alternative facility to motorcar users who otherwise would be on congested roads and more importantly, avert annual 4,000 fatalities taking place on suburban railway system by significantly reducing the commuter load on it.

7. Help towards the long-term objective of reducing adverse impact on global warming and climate change.

8. Providing priority to projects such as the coastal road would only encourage use of personal motorcars and would go contrary to the National Urban Transport Policy of prioritizing walking, cycling and the BRT system.

9. The coastal road does not seem to be creating accessible open public space to the 125 lakh people that Mumbai holds. Also, it does not seem to be an investment towards making an equitable facility in a society with democratic values and polity.

(Sudhir Badami is a civil engineer and transportation analyst. He is on Government of Maharashtra’s Steering Committee on BRTS for Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee on BRTS for Mumbai. He is also member of Research & MIS Committee of Unified Mumbai Metropolitan Transport Authority. He was member of Bombay High Court appointed erstwhile Road Monitoring Committee (2006-07). While he has been an active campaigner against Noise for more than a decade, he is a strong believer in functioning democracy. He can be contacted on email at [email protected])