CRZ paves way for 69 coastal roads……Sharad Vyas
MUMBAI: The city’s network of roads is ready to expand thanks to the new coastal regulation zone notification, which the Centre announced last Friday. The civic body has already indentified 69 arterial roads and thoroughfares in the eastern and western suburbs. Work on most of these roads or ‘missing links’ had come to a standstill or did not take off because of certain stipulations in the previous coastal zone regulations, which have now been lifted.
The coastal regulation zone (CRZ) notification of 1991 did not allow the construction of roads in CRZ-1 land, which is foreshore land on the seaward side of any existing building. This restriction has now been lifted.
The 69 roads are spread across nearly 7 lakh sq m (70 hectares) of mangrove land, and will be built on stilts to preserve the coast’s sensitive ecology. The new roads will improve connectivity and ease traffic in the suburbs, which have fewer freeways and arterial roads than the island city, said civic officials.
The estimated cost is Rs 263 crore, and the deadline for completing the project is 2013.
The thoroughfares are spread across mangrove areas in Seven Bungalows (Andheri), Kanjurmarg, Link Road (Goregaon), Borivli, Dahisar, Gorai, Malad-Malvani, Chembur, Ghatkopar and Mulund. Conservationists are worried that the rise in construction activity will spell doom for the mangrove lands.
Environmentalist Debi Goenka said: “This is a disaster. Although the environment ministry has allowed the building of these roads on stilts, there is no way the construction activity will not affect tidal flow.” But Brihanmumbai Municipal Organization (BMC) officials said it will follow environment rules and build the roads over the mangrove lands on stilts. The BMC had also been lobbying for the removal of affected mangrove lands from the protection of the forest department. “The new notification has given missing links a new lease of life,” said a senior official from the development planning department of civic body.
The new CRZ notification will allow the BMC to widen and construct important thoroughfares like the Borivli-Gorai road, extend Borivli’s L T Road that opens out at Gorai, develop 15 DP roads in Dahisar, and built an 18.3 m-wide DP road Valnai (Malad). It will pave the way for development plan roads in Malvani, Juhu and Versova. Other key roads in the pipeline are a 120-foot link along Juhu Tara Road that will open out at J P Road in Versova, a relief road running along Link Road at Malad, stilt-mounted roads connecting Versova Jetty to Erangal, a missing link leading to the Airoli-Mulund Link Road, and a 120-foot road in Wadala.
What’s more, it will give proposed road plans a boost, said civic officials.
For example, the permission will help the second phase of the Sea Link.
The now coastal regulation zone notification allows the redevelopment of slum colonies and dilapidated, old and cessed buildings with 200 m of the coastline. Fishing villages within 100 m of the coast can also be redeveloped. It will herald a slew of development activity, and the BMC wants to make the best use of this. “Most of these links are marked on the city’s development plan as reserved for roads and will need to be acquired for development. But if construction is carried out in the vicinity, we can ask the developer to develop them for us,” said an official.