Additional coastal road exit at Nepean Sea Road ‘feasible’: BMC

Mumbai: Residents of the upmarket Breach Candy area in south Mumbai might just get their way. Following months of clamour for an additional exit of the Mumbai Coastal Road at Nepean Sea Road in order to ease congestion at the Amarsons interchange, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that building one is feasible but not straightforward. And certainly not cheap.

At a meeting between Breach Candy residents, Malabar Hill MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and senior BMC officials on Thursday, additional municipal commissioner (projects) Amit Saini said that building an additional exit “is certainly feasible, although there are some impediments we will have to work around; and it will be expensive”.

To ensure the coastal road remains signal-free, one possibility for the proposed exit, said Saini, is a vehicular underpass after the Amarsons interchange for southbound traffic. The underpass will then merge onto a new road on the reclaimed land at Breach Candy that will travel alongside the coastal road tunnel till it makes the turn towards Nepean Sea Road. “But this is only the discussion stage; it’s yet to be studied,” added Saini.

The demand for an additional exit began in September 2024 after the coastal road was opened to traffic earlier in the year. Breach Candy residents said they were being impacted by congestion at the Amarsons interchange on Bhulabhai Desai Road, which is one of the exits of the coastal road.

“Based on our observations, over 50% of the southbound traffic between 5.30 pm to 8 pm that exits into Breach Candy are going towards Nepean Sea Road, coming from the Bandra Kurla Complex, with the occasional bouts of VIP traffic,” said Nandini Chabria, a core member of the Breach Candy Residents Forum (BCRF). “The need, therefore, is for another south-bound exit.”

Having garnered the support of local MLA Lodha, who came with the backing of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the BMC had turned receptive, as opposed to their earlier stand that building an additional exit would not be possible.

“The exit will be like a service road, but there are several challenges,” said an official from the BMC’s coastal road department. At the point where the vehicular underpass might be built, there is a pedestrian underpass planned for access to the coastal road promenade, which extends from Breach Candy to Haji Ali. “There is also a valve for the stormwater drain chamber, which controls the flow of water and allows it to drain when there are heavy rains and high tides. Both of these will have to be extended inwards a little,” added the official.

One more obstacle is bus stops at the point where the proposed vehicle underpass would begin, said Saini. Another pedestrian underpass may also have to be created further ahead, as the road will emerge from the vehicular underpass till the exit over the coastal road’s tunnels, where, currently, open spaces are planned as a continuous stretch until the new promenade.

There also remains the matter of taking over the land needed to build the exit onto Nepean Sea Road. The land at the proposed location belongs to the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). Despite sending a request in January, the BMC has not yet received a response from the MSRDC about using their plot for the exit.

With Lodha on board, however, officials said the civic body was assured it would go their way. Once the MSRDC’s approval comes, the BMC will ask AECOM, the infrastructure consulting firm appointed for the coastal road, to conduct a feasibility study for the additional exit.

“A meeting will be held once again early in March, where we have asked the coastal road [department] to prepare a drawing and come up with a block estimate for the Nepean Sea Road exit,” said Saini. “If the plan goes ahead, we will have to approach the Supreme Court for the change in the project parameters.”

Saini also instructed Abhijit Bangar, the additional municipal commissioner overseeing roads and traffic, to conduct a study of the traffic caused by vehicles exiting at the Amarsons interchange.

Meanwhile, BCRF members agreed to rethink their opposition to an underground car park planned at the Amarsons interchange. This was after Lodha promised them that one floor at the car park would be reserved for them. “Most buildings there do not have parking space, and people visiting the promenade and coastal road also need parking to arrive. Parking is a gift for residents,” said Lodha.