The much-touted coastal road linking Kandivli to Nariman point is running into a plethora of objections.
A signature campaign from city environmentalists has been submitted to the environment ministry even as the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the coastal road is under ‘peer review’. The 60-day period for this was granted on June 25, so we should know in a week’s time where the project is headed.
The issue is not so much that the road will obscure the view of the sea for residents living along the coast on its 36-km stretch, as has been argued by votaries of the project within the ministry, but because precedent offers enough forewarning of future problems.
For instance, there is the fear that reclamation of land, (which could extend up to 200m into the sea) may also be used for other construction even though environment minister Prakash Javadekar has been at pains to allay such fears. As a report in the Hindustan Times (by Kunal Purohit, July 8, 2015) says:
“While the ministry’s notification amends CRZ rules to allow unhindered land reclamation and the hacking of mangroves, it mentions that reclamation must be done in a way that doesn’t affect tidal patterns. The ministry has also made it clear that no construction should be permitted on land between the existing high tide line and the road.”
Yet, as is only too wellknown, most state governments in the country are notorious for getting amnesic about promises made at the negotiation stage. To aggravate concerns, construction of the road has been assigned to the BMC, whose record in such projects is abysmal.
While chief minist er Devendra Fadnavis announced technical assistance from Holland (which has vast experience and excellent record in land reclamation), veteran environmental journalist Darryl D’Monte quoted the Dutch Consul General in Mumbai, Arend Gouw, saying that the ambitious project would “homogenise” (read ‘affect adversely’) the coast if not done properly (Business Standard, July 10, 2015).
For the record, the state put forward the idea of the coastal road in February, though it was only made public in June. But this is a variation of a decades-old plan to build an alternative road for a linear city which was in limbo as land reclamation was prohibited under the CRZ regulation since 1974 which was overturned recently. Of such projects, only the Bandra-Worli sea link reached fruition, but not without innumerable delays and spiraling costs.
The Kandivli-Nariman Point coastal road is estimated to cost Rs12,000 crore and will take four years to build – if it does not get into logistical logjams. It will also include a flyover over Peddar Road, one of the biggest bottlenecks of the north-south journey, which has been planned and shelves ad infinitum.
The concept of a coastal road for a jagged coastline has been debated several times. But the issue has been polarised from the beginning and the positions on either side have hardened over the years. The objectors point to possible environmental and livelihood disruption.
There are fishing villages along the way, they argue, that will be affected. Mangroves are essential buffers between land and sea and stabilise the coast. They are also ecosystems in themselves, nurturing marine life. Losing mangroves would be catastrophic for residents of Versova, Juhu, Bandra, Mahim, Dadar, Gigaum Chowpatty etc.
However, there is also undeniably the issue of increasing transportation needs and pressure on existing systems. That Mumbai’s traffic is squeezed into impossible spaces is hardly a revelation, more a daily hardship which people are getting fed up of.
The better solution would be to augment public transport, say environmentalists. There is enough global evidence (Singapore, London, Paris etc) to ratify this. But it is also the case in such cities too that infrastructure development, if carried out at reasonable cost, in good time and keeping in mind environmental sensitivities, can be a boon. So how does the impasse break? I venture not all environmentalists are antidevelopment, or all those prodevelopment care two hoots about the environment. That is gross stereotyping.
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