A trip to enjoy high rising waves splashing the Marine Drive promenade will soon become a memory for Mumbaikars. With the ongoing reclamation work as part of the coastal road project, after the supreme court vacated a stay and all throughout the lockdown is set to change the face of Marine Drive, or queen's necklace as it is popularly known as.
A portion of the sea and the Promenade near the Marine drive flyover and close to Girgaon Chowpatty has become partially out-of-bounds to walkers and joggers and a part of the stretch is occupied why heavy machinery used for the construction work.
The BMC has been targeting completion of the 9.9-km current phase of the Coastal Road project, by December 2022, despite a five-month disruption last year. This particular stretch is proposed at Rs 12,969 crore, is to be an eight-lane highway which will connect Marine Drive to the southern end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
The coastal road, once completed, is expected to be used by nearly 1,30,000 vehicles every day and reduce the two-hour drive between South Mumbai and the city’s western suburbs to 40 minutes. However, activists, residents have alleged that reclamation is pushing the sea farther from the promenade thus making it inaccessible to the public.
Hence the iconic Marine Drive promenade and walkway is set to lose its identity soon, residents have said.
Marine Drive resident Mukesh Asrani regular walker said, "Infrastructure and development is the need of the hour, but the iconic Marine Drive promenade and walkway will become just a memory for Mumbaikars due to the coastal road construction. It is really sad. The sea used to be so much near when you sit on the promenade wall to enjoy the breeze, don't think this will be possible when the new infrastructure is completed."
Even during the lockdown, coastal road construction is going on simultaneously at various sites across South Mumbai. Work on the Promenade started several months ago, but following the court's stay on the construction, everything came to a halt however after the stay was vacated the work resumed again in January.
"After the stay was lifted, work resumed and got stuck once again due to the initial lockdown, wherein we lost 15 days. we are now trying to cover up for the days we have lost however with hundreds of labourers migrating to the hometown the work has slowed down we are expecting them you come back soon," said a senior BMC official.
While many residential groups and environmentalists opposed the move to resume construction during the lockdown, BMC said it was carrying out pre-monsoon work including sea wall construction and completing reclamation and bringing activities to a ‘safe stage’ to ensure there was no flooding during monsoon.
The official added, "We will build a similar promenade on a cantilever bridge along the new road, which will be open to the public will move few metres into the sea. There is no question of the sea becoming inaccessible to the public."
Despite the explanation by the civic body, residents strongly feel that the iconic Queens Necklace will lose its charm forever.
