Mumbai: civic issues
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Reclamation of land from the sea
2020: sea made to recede by 400m
Clara Lewis, December 6, 2020: The Times of India
Mumbai’s shoreline has extended by 200-400 metres along Priyadarshini Park, Nepean Sea Road and Breach Candy owing to coastal road reclamations. This is the largest ever reclamation in the city since the 1970s, when reclamation was carried out for the Nariman Point and Backbay areas and thereafter banned.
Municipal commissioner I S Chahal said the tunnel boring machine (TBM) to be used to drill through Malabar Hill for the underground section of the coastal road is now being assembled on site and will be ready for boring by December 15. The TBM’s constituent parts were brought to Priyadarshini Park in April in 17 trailer trucks.
“The sea has receded on account of reclamation being done for the coastal road. We have completed 17% of the physical work in the last four months and spent Rs 1,281 crore, the highest-ever on the coastal road,” said Chahal.
Two days ago, the BMC had arranged a visit for chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to see the progress of work on the 9.98km coastal road.
Chahal said he has received calls from several residents of flats that were next to the sea, but now are at a distance from the new seafront. “Environment minister Aditya Thackeray mentioned to me that his friend’s wife was from Dehradun and the only reason she opted to marry in Mumbai was because the sea was so close to her home,” he said. Six months into her marriage, she finds that the sea is no longer nearby and so she conveyed her unhappiness to the minister.
Chahal said the Covid-19 lockdown proved to be a boon for the project as trucks could move without hindrance, though much of the material was brought by sea. “Three hillocks required to be cut for the Navi Mumbai International Airport. We brought boulders here by sea to use for the reclamations,” he said.
