Coastal Road receives green clearance from environment ministry

Mumbai: The union ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) cleared the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s last hurdle for the coastal road project by granting clearance for its south phase — Princess Street Flyover to Worli end of Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

However, while granting the permission, the Centre has recommended to make the proposed coastal road permanently toll free.

Civic officials last month had made the project presentation before MoEF’s expert appraisal committee for projects related to Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ). The committee on Friday gave the CRZ permission for the project, thus paving way to kick-start the work.

Additional municipal commissioner, Sanjay Mukherjee said, “With MoEF’s clearance we are ready to begin the project work. Bids will be invited shortly and work is expected to start from October.”

However, the committee has put forward certain conditions asking the BMC to fulfil them while carrying out the project. Prominent among them are that the reclaimed land shall not be used for commercial or residential purpose; open spaces created by reclamation are fully protected against encroachment and illegal parking; the green spaces should be done in eco-friendly manner, marine and coastal bio diversity display.

“We will fulfill these conditions as most of them are from our Development Plan (DP) itself,” said Mr Mukherjee.