The facts are scattered around us. Join them as you would join dots on a paper, and a pattern emerges about Mumbai’s development. It points to a disquieting evaluation which, then, raises critical questions about the future of the city, once Urbs Prima in Indis, as the Latin phrase went.

Coastal road expansion and ecological cost

First, the coastal road project now stretches from South Mumbai right up to Bhayandar, with the Versova-Bhayandar stretch intensely opposed by environmental groups, especially the Save Mumbai Mangroves, considering that nearly two-thirds of the 60,000 mangroves over 103 hectares will be legally cut down or displaced. Despite the pushback by activists and planners, who have suggested alternative alignments, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the state government, with the approval of the Bombay High Court as well as the Supreme Court, are at it. Note here that not only are alternative alignments possible, but specific suggestions have been made to the BMC to preserve the ecology.

Second, the coastal road is, as per plans, set to be extended all the way up to Palghar. The Bhayandar-Palghar stretch will be a 55-km high-speed sea link. The engineering cost of this arm of the coastal road is unclear; the environmental cost is literally up in the air. MMRDA has positioned this as the grand design of coastal connectivity. ‘At what cost?’ is a question that begs an answer. Its proposal for the Uttan (Bhayandar)-Virar section received approval on March 11. Forget the provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone law; the approval said a “dense green belt of Miyawaki forest will be developed at the intersections on the completion of........

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