With Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s Swaraj Rakshak Chhatrapati Shambaji Mumbai Coastal Road set to be inaugurated on Monday, last-minute works were on in full swing on Saturday.
A high-speed corridor, the Coastal Road is 10.58-km long, of which 9.5 km will be opened for vehicular movement on Monday, following a flag-off ceremony by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.
Civic officials said that on Saturday finishing touches were given to road signages, lights and LED screens. Road surfaces were also inspected for glitches, if any, they added. “There will be signages after every 50-100 metres that will allow motorists to know the direction.
Also ahead of every interchange we have set up dedicated boards specifying the direction where each arm leads to,” an official said.
The Coastal Road will have three interchanges, one each at Haji Ali, Worli and Amarsons. While the Amarsons interchanges will have four arms, the Haji Ali and Worli interchanges will have five and eight arms, respectively.
Officials said that initially only one arm in each of the interchanges will be made operational. On Friday, BMC authorities carried out a test run of vehicles and BEST buses where it was decided that the maximum speed on the arterial road would be 80 kmph, inside the tunnel it will be around 60 kmph and 40 kmph at the interchanges.
Civic officials said in the initial stage motorists are likely to drive at lower speeds. “The reason, why we are expecting motorists to drive at lower speeds is because they may need time to figure out how the interchanges work, and where they lead to. Therefore, while the maximum speed has been kept at 80 kmph we are expecting the average speed limit to range between 50-60 kmph initially,” the official said.
Meanwhile, a civic official said they have also kept towing vehicles, ambulances and cranes on standby as a precautionary measure. The BMC is also set to deploy wardens.
Built at a cost of Rs 13,983 crore, the Coastal Road comprises a series of arterial roads and underground tunnels.
What next?
The CM will flag off vehicular movement from Worli, and initially the Coastal Road will be open for only south-bound traffic (Worli till Marine Drive). At present the launching of girders for the bow-string bridge that will connect the road with Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) is underway and this bridge is set to become operational by end of May this year, following which the entire 10.58-km stretch of the Coastal Road will become operational.
In the next phase, the BMC will construct the Coastal Road that will connect Versova with Dahisar in the western suburbs that will be 20.75-km long.
The total project has been divided into six different packages. Package A will cover 4.5 km between Versova and Bangur Nagar (Goregaon), package B will cover 1.66 km between Bangur Nagar and Mindspace (Malad).
Packages C and D include north and south bound carriageways that will be created between Mindspace and Charkop (Kandivali). Each of these packages will be 3.66-km long each.
Package E, which will be 3.78-km long, will connect Charkop with Gorai and the final package F will be 3.69-km long connecting Gorai with Dahisar.
The next phase of the project will cost Rs 16,621 crore and the BMC in December issued work order to six different firms.
The civic body has set up a six-year deadline for completing the project.