Coastal road will cater only to rich: Activists to BMC :The Times of India

Citizen activists have slammed the proposed Rs12,000 crore coastal road, saying it will serve only 1. 9 lakh people--or 1.5% of the city's 1.24 crore population. In their objections and suggestions to BMC, they have argued for a public transport system that benefits all and not an expensive road that destroys nature and benefits only the rich.

The BMC has so far received 163 letters of objectionssuggestions. The deadline for submission of the same has now been extended to August 27.

The New Link Road Residents' Forum has warned against reclamation and mangrove destruction. The Forum, which has fought right up to the Supreme Court to restore over 400 acres of mangrove in the Dahisar area, has said in its letter: “Reclamation over the years has resulted in high tide water entering the Hotel Taj at Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Dadar and Mahim. The coastal road will further escalate this phenomenon in other parts of the city. Global warming and rising sea levels are disasters of the future and the coastal road will be vulnerable to it.“

It has also warned that the road will severely impact fishing communities.

Activist Ashok Datar and others from Mumbai Environment Social Network (MESN) have objected to the Detailed Project Report (DPR) saying it does not provide clear and consistent projections of traffic volume, toll rates and amount. It has also not taken into account the DPR projections done for the Bandra-Worli sea-link and the Eastern Freeway and what happened there.

The MESN's letter states: “Giving exponential and mechanistic projections of traffic, toll amounts and economic benefits for a period up to 2043 is not appropriate. In a rapidly changing world, a linear projection of growth in traffic at 5% per annum is wrong. To justify such a huge investment on such a weak basis is not right.“

The Juhu Citizens' Welfare Group has said that the coastal road will destroy the character, ecology and historicity of Mumbai. “ A simpler plan like revamping of the existing coastal road in the South, plus a new sea link in the North would serve equally well without the attendant destruction caused by transporting and dumping millions of tonnes of debris onto Mumbai's sea-front,“ the letter said.

Architects Shweta Wagh and Z Hussein from the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies said the project attempts to show larger social benefits when the truth is exactly the opposite.

“As a project that serves to transport not more than 1.5% of the city's population on any given day , it is more of a private amenity than a public good.And though it will not ease the burden on the congested public transport network, the public will be made to finance this fundamentally in-egalitarian project,“ they said.