Mumbai, May 23: Maharashtra’s first dedicated mangrove park at Gorai is all set to be officially inaugurated on Thursday, May 28, by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The ecologically significant park, built at an expense of Rs 33.43 crore, will be inaugurated after a prolonged cycle of bureaucratic limbo.
The announcement was made by Borivali MLA Sanjay Upadhyay, giving a major sigh of relief to environmentalists, educators, and citizens who have watched the project languish behind locked gates for nearly a year after its structural completion. The park will be inaugurated by the CM on Thursday at 10.30 am, the legislator stated.
High-profile inauguration ceremony planned
The high-profile ceremony will be headlined by the CM as well as Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal, who is also the Member of Parliament from Mumbai North.
The event will also see the prominent presence of State Forest Minister Ganesh Naik, Maharashtra Minister and Mumbai Suburban Guardian Minister Ashish Shelar, Additional Guardian Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and Mumbai North's former MP Gopal Shetty.
Spread across an expansive eight hectares of sensitive coastal wetlands, the Gorai Mangrove Park has been designed as a world-class centre for eco-tourism and environmental awareness. The crown jewel of the park is a 750-metre-long elevated wooden boardwalk.
In a significant win for conservation design, the winding trail was constructed entirely through the dense mangrove canopy without felling a single mangrove tree.
The boardwalk culminates in a panoramic viewing deck overlooking the local creek, complete with a bird observatory curated specifically for coastal and avian species.
Eco-tourism and education focus
In addition to the nature trail, the park will feature interactive educational zones where virtual reality-powered biodiversity modules will teach visitors about marine biology.
The park will also boast app-based information services to help visitors identify various mangrove flora and fauna in real time and also offer eco-adventure activities.
As Mumbai battles the compounding threats of climate change, rising sea levels, and intense monsoon flooding, the preservation of its urban mangrove buffers has never been more critical.
Officials hope that the new park will serve as a vital bridge between urban Mumbaikars and the heavily threatened coastal ecosystems that shield the financial capital.
Project delayed despite completion
Formally named the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Mangrove Park, the project was first initiated in 2021 under the tenure of then Environment and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray.
Developed by the Mangrove Cell of the Maharashtra Forest Department and approved by the State Eco-Tourism Board, the park was initially scheduled for completion by January 2023.
While construction was substantially wrapped up by mid-2025, the facility’s gates remained tightly shut for months. A series of tentative opening deadlines — ranging from May 1 to World Environment Day on June 5 and subsequently multiple dates moving into early 2026 — all lapsed without fruition.
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Forest Department sources and administrative officials had previously acknowledged anonymously that the state-of-the-art nature park was functionally ready, but its public opening was repeatedly bottlenecked by political scheduling and the unavailability of top ministers for a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony.
This prolonged delay drew sharp rebukes from city environmentalists, who criticised the government for prioritising political optics over public ecological education.
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