No more free rides on Mumbai Coastal Road

With the final stretch connecting the Coastal Road to the BandraWorli Sea Link thrown open for northbound traffic there wonrsquot be any more free rides Commuters will have to pay toll at the Bandra exit On Thursday Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated one of the connectors near the BandraWorli Sea Link The stretch for southbound traffic will take three to four months to complete This marks the third opening for the 105km stretch of the coastal bridge within three months with at least one more in the coming months Meanwhile Dy CM Ajit Pawar didnrsquot attend the eventCM Shinde and Dy CM Fadnavis at the ribbon cutting ceremony PicsAtul KambleThe stretch that was opened on Thursday was meant for southbound traffic but has been opened for northbound commuters for the time being Once the other stretch is ready this connector will be used for southbound traffic Traffic will be allowed from 7 am today Until now vehicles had to exit at the Worli Sea Face road and then move onto the BandraWorli Sea Link as the connector wasnrsquot ready This development also means a ride on the Rs 13000 crore Coastal Road which is tollfree will not be free anymore Vehicles that move directly onto the sea link will have to pay Rs 100 at the Bandra exitCM Shinde told the media that the road would cut travel time from two hours down to 20 minutes to reach Bandra ldquoThe work of the BandraVersova Coastal Road is also going onhellip it will eventually connect to Virar and help a lot of commuters avoid trafficrdquo Along with Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis Guardian Ministers Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Deepak Kesarkar Additional Chief Secretary I S Chahal and BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani were present on the occasion Meanwhile Dy CM Ajit Pawar was missing When asked about his absence Fadnavis said that he Pawar had already informed the CM ldquoHe is with us and will travel on the same roadrdquoCM Shinde breaks a coconut at the inaugurationReacting to the inauguration Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray posted on X ldquoItrsquos a joke that the clueless and illegal CM of the regime is inaugurating every km of the delayed Coastal Road He should in fact be ashamed about the delay and cost escalations The fact that the road surface in the tunnel and on the ramps is already horriblehellip in less than six months speaks volumes about the corrupt regime Had our MVA government continued we would have completed this project of Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray by December 2023 with the walking and cycling pathways and the 96hectare green spaceToll receipt after travel on new connectorFadnavis while inaugurating the connector blamed the Uddhav Thackeray government for the slow pace of construction of the Coastal Road ldquoThe road started in the regime of Mahayuti government and after we came to power again we improved the pace of work In fact Uddhav Thackeray ignored the requests of fishermen to increase the span between the pillars but we fulfilled itrdquo Apart from one connector arms at Worli are still incomplete and will take another six to eight months to be ready The work of parking lots and gardens is still in the planning stageThird Coastal Road event since Marchgtgt March 11 Southbound arm of Coastal Road route between Worli and Marine Lines openedgtgt June 10 Northbound arm from Marine Lines to Lotus Jetty through Haji Ali openedgtgt July 11 Stretch of Coastal Road from Haji Ali to Khan Abdul Gafar Khan Road opened without formal inaugurationgtgt September 12 Arch bridge opened This was scheduled for opened by the end of July but it was postponed due to due to the monsoon and technical issues