BMC felicitates 2012 team that gave project nod, Sena (UBT) ex-mayor not invited | Mumbai News
BMC felicitates 2012 team that gave project nod, Sena (UBT) ex-mayor not invited | Mumbai News
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Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and hot on the heels of the inauguration of part of the Coastal Road, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) felicitated members and the chairman of the civic standing committee from 2012, from across party lines, who had given the green signal to the ambitious high-speed corridor project, as well as the then-municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar.
The felicitation ceremony saw only 11 members of this group in attendance that included former corporators like the BJP’s Praveen Chedda, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Jyotsna Dighe, Congress’s Sheetal Mhatre, MNS’s Sandeep Deshpande and Trushna Vishwasrao of the Shiv Sena.
However, the former Mayor in 2012, Sunil Prabhu, a Sena (UBT) MLA, remained conspicuous through his absence as he was not invited.
Opened to traffic partially on March 12, the Coastal Road’s genesis goes back as early as 2011 when the Maharashtra government constituted a joint technical committee (JTC) in June under the chairmanship of then BMC chief Subhodh Kumar, to study the scope for improved mobility in the city. Months later, in December 2011, the committee submitted its report, recommending a 35.6 km Coastal Road along the western flank of Mumbai.
Harking back to the initial deliberations, Subhodh Kumar said, “In our initial meetings which were held in the presence of Prithviraj Chavan as well as MSRDC officials, there were discussions to make a Coastal Road on stilts. However, I had intervened and suggested the reclamation works, at a time when reclamation was considered a dirty word. Despite the roadblocks, we were motivated to improve the commute for citizens. For the funds, I proposed the idea of fungible FSI (floor space index).”
“Following the BMC budget in 2012, I suggested that the civic body should execute the project. Even though our team had our doubts, soon, the Coastal Road became a pet project for all the chief ministers,” he added.
Even as the standing committee from 2018, which was chaired by Sena leader Yashwant Jadhav, had given the final approvals to construct the Mumbai Coastal Road Project at a cost of Rs 12,721 crore, they were not invited for the felicitation on Thursday.
Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale, who was the chairman of the 2012 standing committee, said that the event was not about taking credit, but about celebrating the Coastal Road. “The Coastal Road is a marvel which will reduce travel time for citizens and offer them a great experience. Owing to the changes made to the original designs, objections by NGOs, environmental clearances and even Covid, the project was delayed by almost two years,” he said.
“We had developed the idea of Coastal Road in 2011 to resolve the problem of traffic congestion. While giving the budget speech, it was announced that a sum of nearly Rs 40,000 crore can be generated through fungible FSI, which enabled the BMC to carry out this work,” he added.
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