Why can’t Coastal Road produce a Marathi tune: MNS leader Amit Thackeray

Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Amit Thackeray has questioned why a Marathi tune cannot be produced on the Coastal Road after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation unveiled the country’s first ‘musical’ road there, which plays "Jai Ho".

In a post on X, the MNS leader described the Coastal Road as an ambitious project for Mumbai and said development must reflect Maharashtra’s traditions.

“It would have been a different experience and a moment of pride had a Marathi melody been played on the road. But we have again lost our identity,” Thackeray said in the post.

He said it would have been great if the road had produced the tune of the Maharashtra state song ‘Garja Maharashtra Majha’ or any other song sung by the legendary Lata Mangeshkar.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde on Wednesday inaugurated India’s first ‘musical’ or ‘melody’ road.

When vehicles travel over specially installed grooves at 70 to 80 kmph on a Coastal Road stretch, the friction-generated sound waves produce the melody of the iconic song ‘Jai Ho’ from the film Slumdog Millionaire, which can be clearly heard inside the vehicle.

In the first phase, the concept has been implemented on a 500-metre stretch of the Coastal Road, and there are plans to expand the musical road concept further.