58% of Coastal Road Project complete: BMC

The project, consisting of a 2.07 km-tunnel, a road, and an interchange, aims to connect south Mumbai to the Worli end of the Worli-Bandra Sea Link through a high-speed corridor. The BMC said the tunnel from Priyadarshini Park to Netaji Subhash Marg (Marine Drive) has already been completed, while 39 percent of work on the tunnel on the other side has also been completed.

Civic authorities also said that 97 percent of the reclamation work for the Coastal Road has been completed.. The road will extend the coast up to 100 metres into the sea. The BMC plans to reclaim a 111-hectare area in the Arabian Sea. Of this area, which is 12 times the Oval Maidan at Churchgate, the civic body has completed about 107 hectares so far.

The project began around 2018-end and reclamation and construction works were initiated at six sites — near Girgaum Chowpatty, Priyadarshini park at Nepean Sea Road, Bhulabhai Desai road-Breach Candy area, Haji Ali, Worli sea face, and near the south end of Bandra Worli sea link.

The civic body said 70 percent of work off the sea wall has been completed as well. In the budget for 2022-23, the BMC allocated Rs 3,200 crore for the Coastal Road project and municipal commissioner I S Chahal said they were determined to complete 90 percent of the project by the end of the 2022-23 financial year.

In a first for the country, monopile foundation is being used instead of multiple foundations for the construction of the bridge and interchange, said the BMC.

This means that the coastal road is being built on 175 monopiles – each being a single column erected from bottom to top instead of a group pile wherein there are four pillars each.

Of the 175 monopiles to be constructed under the bridges, 70 have been built.