Mumbai: At Haji Ali and Worli a sea change

None of the changes along the Coastal Road is proposed to be as radical as the ones from Haji Ali to Worli Seaface. Provided that the BMC overcomes the hurdles that several citizen activists, environmentalists and NGOs have thrown its way in the courts, the coastline in this stretch will be pushed 30-300 metres forward into the sea. If the Coastal Road gets done, there will be a new promenade along Worli Dairy, a massive interchange on reclaimed land adjacent to the Haji Ali Dargah and another interchange near the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
Large areas of the tidal zone would have to be reclaimed to accommodate the massive infrastructural changes, especially to provide access points to the two interchanges. Also underground parking lots at three points are proposed. As a result of the changes, especially along Worli promenade, which is lined by residential buildings, the immediate view would be of the coastal road and associated facilities, and not the sea. The existing promenade will survive, but there would be land on both sides. To compensate, a parallel promenade is proposed along the Coastal Road on the seaward side.
At Haji Ali, the Coastal Road will be around 400 metres away from the Dargah, near which an underground parking lot for 1,100 vehicles is planned. The second and third lots, planned near Worli Dairy and the Sea Link, will hold 250 vehicles each. A BMC official said the Haji Ali lot will serve visitors to the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, the Dargah, hospitals in the area, and shopping complexes. Much of the seabed around the Dargah is planned to be reclaimed to build the interchange and its ramps.
Unlike the Breach Candy interchange, from where all four ramps will connect to a single road—Bhulabhai Desai Road (Warden Road)—the Haji Ali interchange will be a much more complex structure as the aim would be to ease traffic from all four feeder roads (which are at odd angles to one another) of the Haji Ali junction onto the Coastal Road. The interchange would facilitate access to the highway from any direction of approach to the Haji Ali signal. At one point, two arms of the interchange will cross each other above the Coastal Road, with a height separation of 24 metres. “We usually see such structures in films shot at foreign locales. But once the Coastal Road is ready, Mumbaikars would get to actually use one for real,” said an engineer associated with the project.
Like at Haji Ali, reclamations will alter the shoreline all along Worli, except for a sliver of the existng topography at Lotus Jetty, to alow fisherfolk access to the sea from heir current base. To skirt this porion, the BMC will build a bridge near Samudra Mahal building for he Coastal Road to pass and then continue on reclaimed land. After that, it will ascend another bridge which is to come up at Love Grove (where Worli Nullah meets the sea) on bridge and then again continue on reclaimed land. Thereon, a mini sea link will connect the Coastal Road with the Worli end of Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
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