Does the Coastal Road stand on firm ground?

The Coastal Road, an 8-lane highway to be built on reclaimed land along Mumbai’s western coast, is touted to significantly decrease vehicular congestion on Mumbai’s arterial roads and bring air pollution by reducing slow moving traffic. This project has been through various versions dating back to the 1950s, the most recent being a proposal to create a Western Freeway consisting of four connected sealinks between Kandivali and Marine Drive, which had been tendered out as well. This project was initiated with the construction of the Bandra-Worli Sealink, but in 2011 the plan was reimagined in its current form which appeared far more cost-effective. Given the revisions, delays and objections that the Coastal Road concept was subject to, how robust are the underlying examinations that support its value. Have enough studies and leg-work been carried out to justify public trust in the project?

In 2008, while work was nearing completion on the Bandra-Worli Sealink the BMC completed a Comprehensive Traffic Survey (CTS), intended to inform the city’s transport strategy. The study - which is yet to be made entirely public - assessed short-term and long-term transport infrastructure needs, and as such was part of the rationale for continuing the Freeway project. But when the Freeway was amended to a Coastal Road in 2011 and further interchanges were added, this decision was based primarily on economic factors and was not supported by fresh traffic studies. Five years after the data for the CTS was collected and 2 years after the Bandra-Worli sealink was opened to the public, there should have been sufficient reason to re-examine the data when making these significant changes.

The experience of the Bandra-Worli sealink ought to have imparted important lessons for further traffic infrastructure projects. The sealink has been operational since 2009, and its usage and influence on traffic could be an important indication of the impact of a Coastal Road. In 2017 it was reported that the daily average traffic on the sealink was only a third of the official projections when it was being constructed. Additionally, the cost of constructing the road had ballooned to 4 times the projected amount. This performance should have cast doubts on the previous traffic studies and assumptions, however we have yet to see any significant follow up to the original CTS that was completed 10 years before the Coastal Road was tendered out.

Instead, the only further traffic study that examined the need for the coastal road was a 7-day vehicle count conducted in 2016, with its fair share of blind spots. Firstly, this survey overlooked certain interior roads that will absorb traffic from an 8-lane highway. Warden Road, August Kranti Marg, and Princess Street are examples of narrow streets that are likely to suffer bottlenecks carrying traffic to and from the coastal road, yet they were not included in this exercise. Several logistical challenges, such as the presence of heritage buildings and religious sites, will complicate any plans to widen these roads.

Secondly, the survey was limited to vehicular traffic on or near the western coast. Other arterial roads, and their change in usage since 2008 were not examined despite significant changes to the city’s business districts since. To establish the need for a mega-project serving the western coast it should be as important to determine the relative usage of this route versus others, as well as understanding the importance of other modes of transport. Mumbai Metro plans were expanded post-2008 - including Metro Line 3 which will serve an almost identical route to the Coastal Road - still the 2016 survey only took road traffic into consideration unlike the 2008 CTS.

In addition to a rigorous analysis of its possible benefits, any evaluation of a transport mega-project must also consider the associated economic, social, and environmental costs. In the case of the Coastal Road Project, some costs seem to have been assessed far too late. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project was not initially published; this was only done following a Bombay High Court order and subsequent Supreme Court appeal process in 2019. Several issues that emerged through citizens groups and Public Interest Litigations, could have been addressed in a more timely manner had the project followed the EIA public consultation procedure.

One such issue is the impact on coastal biodiversity. Studies on the marine ecology bound to be affected by the construction and reclamation were only carried out recently, after reclamation had begun. The fact that sensitive coral structures have been identified at Haji Ali which authorities have pledged to relocate, suggests that the existing reclamation is likely to have destroyed similar marine life already. This has consequences beyond the environment, as this biodiversity is crucial to the livelihood of traditional fishing communities who have objected to the reclamation. They have been put under further duress by the BMC’s recent request for an additional 21 hectares of reclaimed land beyond the original 90, another example of the unreliable nature of estimations that the project rests on. These examples show that rather than considering alternatives and evaluating possible costs before finalising plans, the permitting processes for the Coastal Road instead have been exercises in post-facto justification and mitigation.

The Coastal Road concept which has been around for decades appears to be chugging forward based on its purported benefits and assumed impact, rather than recent and rigorous examination of the consequences and alternate options. The project has been criticised for a lack of foresight on long-term effects, both on the geomorphology of the coast and on the transport system of Mumbai. An 8-lane highway isn’t simply a response to the number of vehicles on the congested roads, it also further encourages private vehicles by making them the most convenient method of transport in the city. Urban researcher Hussain Indorewala cites Matthew Turner’s “fundamental law of road congestion” in outlining how further road space induces the demand for more vehicles.

From a climate change, air pollution, and traffic management standpoint, solutions that may clog the city's roads with even more cars cannot be long-term solutions. Public transport systems carry the majority of Mumbai's commuters and are efficient people-carriers, but are suffering from various issues. Money that goes toward private transport constitutes money taken away from public transport. There is more than one way to reduce the traffic on the roads of Mumbai, and based on the experience of planning the Coastal Road, there are many reasons to doubt that its justification stands on firm ground.