Mumbai : In what is a minor modification to ease vehicular traffic coming from the Eastern Freeway towards the proposed coastal road at Marine drive, via crowded areas such as CST station, Metro Cinema and Princess Street flyover, the civic body has decided to make an addition to the alignment of a portion of the coastal road at Princess Street.
An official from the coastal road department said, “We have decided to construct an additional facility as part of the existing coastal road layout. This is a two kilometer long tunnel which will be constructed between Priyadarshani Park and Princess Street flyover near Taraporewala Aquarium.” The 2X2 lane tunnel will pass below Girgaum Chowpatty, and under Malbar Hill. It will be constructed under section -1 of Phase II. This development will create an alternate entry point to the coastal road. Traffic need not go all the way up to the end of Marine Drive to enter the coastal road. At a later point, the civic body will construct the other proposed tunnel from Jagannath Bhosle Marg.
The alignment of the new tunnel is expected to de-congest traffic at Tambe chowk and Cadbury junction near Mahalaxmi Temple, along Peddar Road, Hughes Road and Tambe Chowk junction that follows the tunnel immediately. Besides, as the tunnel will go under Girgaon Chawpatty, existing traffic along this patch will not be disturbed during construction period. This decision was made when Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta conducted a spot visit of the location at Girgaon Chawpatty on Tuesday morning along with Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects), Sanjay Mukherjee, and officials associated with the coastal road project.
