Southbound carriageway of coastal road in Mumbai opens for traffic

Mumbai: The southbound carriageway of the coastal road between Worli and Marine Drive in Mumbai was opened for traffic on Tuesday morning, an official said.

Vehicles were allowed access to the four-lane southbound carriageway of the coastal road from 8 am on Tuesday, a day after the project's first phase was inaugurated by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the traffic police official said.

"The road is opened for traffic," the official said.

According to civic officials, motorists can enter the four-lane southbound carriageway from Worli Seaface, Haji Ali interchange and Amarsons Garden.

Chief Minister Shinde on Monday inaugurated the 10.5-km-long stretch of the road at Worli in the presence of Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and other dignitaries.

Following the inauguration, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the partial opening of the coastal road will reduce the travel time of motorists from 40 minutes to 9 minutes.

He had also claimed that the road would save nearly $100 million annually in carbon emissions through fuel savings.

According to Chahal, the coastal road of 10.58 km length and 16.5 km of interchanges, being built at a cost of Rs 14,000 crore, consists of four lanes on each side along with two 12.19 metre diameter tunnels of 2.07 km length.

These are the largest tunnels by diameter built by tunnel boring machines in the country, he said.