Mumbai coastal road project: Financial capital may become less congested; here’s how

Mumbai’s 29.2-km coastal road project — from Marine Lines to Kandivali — may have hit an environmental roadblock but the debate on whether the Rs 14,000-crore project is worth it goes on. Those in favour say the gains from higher productivity — two hours of daily travel time saved — can be as high as Rs 4,000 crore. This estimate assumes a cost efficiency of about Rs 1,000 a day, an average of 1.5 persons per vehicle, and one lakh vehicles for 22 days a month for 12 months. The investment, therefore, is being recovered in less than four years. “The net savings could be close to Rs 4,000 crore annually on an investment of Rs 14,000 crore. And we are not taking into account savings on fuel, wear and tear, so this is significant,” Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, director, Crisil Infrastructure Advisory, pointed out.

There are of course the added benefits of decongestion because people can live further away from their workplaces and yet make it to office on time. As Manish Agarwal, partner, (infrastructure), PwC, explained, for a city like Mumbai, this is the only way to get a ring-road type structure.