Mumbai bay tourism: Deck for sea view, uniform paint for buildings at Marine Drive

MUMBAI: Keeping an eye on tourism as well as heritage, CM Eknath Shinde on Monday announced the building of a seaside plaza by the Marine Drive, public toilets at 1km interval on the iconic promenade, an international-standard laser show and asked that the sea-facing buildings be painted uniformly to improve the overall vista.
A 53m-long and 5m-wide seaside plaza/viewing deck will be constructed by the planning department near NCPA, said BMC chief Iqbal Chahal. “Sea-facing seating arrangements will be made in the Marine Drive area in the next few days. So tourists will get a good, comfortable place to watch the sea. Work is being started,” he added. Shinde, along with Speaker Rahul Narvekar, Mumbai (suburban) guardian minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha and BMC officials visited Marine Drive on Monday.
Colour scheme for Marine Drive buildings under study
CM Eknath Shinde laid out his vision for the Marine Drive promenade during his visit there on Monday.
"Tourists from all over the world come to Mumbai. Especially, the Marine Drive area is a must-visit for all tourists. The BMC administration must provide various facilities of international standards to these tourists as well as to the citizens of Mumbai visiting for leisure. For the convenience of citizens and tourists, a toilet of excellent quality should be constructed at every one kilometre," said Shinde.
Additional municipal commissioner (city) Ashish Sharma said orders will be issued soon for two toilets to be built by private companies as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the 3.6km promenade.
"The sea-facing buildings in the Marine Drive area should be given a specific colour," said Shinde, without specifying whether he meant one colour or a fixed palette that the residents should stick to. An official said they will study the issue. A long stretch of Art Deco sea-facing houses on Marine Drive is part of the city's latest Unesco World Heritage site.