Despite two Covid-related lockdowns in the last year, work on the city’s Coastal Road has continued at a swift pace. At least 217 acres of land has so far been reclaimed from the Arabian Sea for the project, with an additional 50-odd acres yet to be created. Officials estimate that about 30 percent of the work has been completed. The ‘Mavala’ underground tunnel boring machine (TBM) also continues to excavate earth from under Malabar Hill, at a pace of 7 metres (m) every day. About 330m of tunnelling has been finished presently.
While the project is at least two years away from completion, land reclamation along the Worli coast has already begun impacting the livelihoods of fisherfolk, with women and small fishermen’s incomes being the first to be hit.
