Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday launched Coastal Road Tunnel Boring Machine at Priyadarshini Park in South Mumbai.
Mumbai suburban’ guardian minister and state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray and BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal were also present at the event.
The boring machine, named Mavala, will undertake tunnel boring work for the Mumbai Coastal Road Project beginning from Priyadarshini Park to the Princess Street flyover.
On December 21, BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal had said that nearly 17 per cent work of the ambitious eight-lane coastal road project, undertaken to ease traffic woes in Mumbai, was completed.
The 29.2 km-long seaside road project has been undertaken by the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to connect Marine Drive in south Mumbai to Borivali in north Mumbai.
Sharing the status of the Rs 12,721-crore project with reporters, Chahal had said the coastal road will be "functional in July 2023".
"Substantial work has been done in the last couple of months with an expenditure of Rs 1,281 crore till November. Nearly 17 per cent work of the project work has been completed till now," Chahal said.
About 175 acres of land has so far been reclaimed from the Arabian Sea for the project and another 102 acres is being reclaimed, the civic chief said.
Started in October 2018, the coastal road project was earlier targeted to be completed by 2022, but it got delayed due the litigations.
(Inputs from PTI)
