Mumbai: Amid concerns over a leakage in the recently opened Mumbai coastal road, BMC has pushed forward the opening up of the entire road by almost five months from May to Oct this year—almost two years after its original deadline in 2022 that was set when the project works first began in Dec 2018. The project cost totals Rs 13,984 crore.
Officials have cited two reasons for the current delay.One, approximately 20% of the labour force—6,500 workers are employed at the site —have returned to their native place which is a common feature during May, creating a labour shortage. Two, the upcoming monsoon will prevent the laying of bitumen, a critical component in road construction. So far, 89.2% of the total project work is complete, with 88% of road construction works and 91% of interchanger work done.

“The plan is to open the northbound stretch of the road from Marine Drive to Haji Ali by June 10 and thereafter works will continue for the road up to Worli. Works such as laying of bitumen on the road need a dry spell and cannot be done during monsoon. So, we will not be able to carry out these works during the wet season,” said an official associated with the coastal road project.
The opening of the coastal road was delayed from Nov 2023 to March 2024 initially due to the change in navigation span to 120 metre between two piers—numbers 7 and 8. It was only in 2022 that govt agreed to increase the navigation span to 120m from 56m that was proposed earlier .
Meanwhile, MLA Varsha Gaikwad questioned the civic administration on the leakage on the road barely two months after its opening, raising doubts over the quality of works. “The Eknath Shinde-led govt will have to answer for this joke it has played on the public by first working at a very slow pace on the project, increasing the cost of the work, and then inaugurating a half-baked project in a hurry to take credit for the work when the elections were around the corner,” said Gaikwad.
Shinde while addressing mediapersons on Tuesday said there was no question of taking credit for the project.
“A portion of it was opened as it was ready and would be beneficial for commuters,” he said.

We also published the following articles recently