MUMBAI: The Mumbai city's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has invited six tenders for the appointment of contractors to carry out the construction of the ambitious second phase of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project (MCRP) pegged at a cost of Rs 16,621 crore.

The first phase of the most enterprising project comprises 10.58 kms long connecting the South Bombay arm of the project from Marine Drive with the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. This is currently under construction by Larsen and Toubro in packages 1 and 4, and a consortium of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) and Hyundai Development Company executing packages 2 and 3 respectively.

Being built at an estimated cost of Rs 12,500 crore this phase is envisaged to be completed by November end after which the process for the second phase will be set in action, and BMC is aiming to complete the project within the next four years. 

The second phase of the Coastal Road project-North extension will connect North Versova to Dahisar and will be the longest arm of the project and will bridge the gap between Bandra and Versova by a sea link.

The BMC has released a national e-tender notice for all 6 packages from A to F comprising the entire stretch and the date for the closing of bidding is 11 September.

The package A covers 4.5-km of the northbound arm and includes elevated roads, a basket bridge, and an arterial road built on stilts to connect the under-construction Versova–Bandra Sea Link interchange in Versova to Lokhandwala.

The package B will provide connectivity with the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project which aims to connect the Western and Eastern Express Highways. BMC has already awarded the construction contract for two underground tunnels as part of the GMLR project to a joint venture between NCC, based in Hyderabad, and J Kumar Infra Projects.

4 other packages of Versova-Dahisar connector, totalling a length of around 12 kms, will provide connectivity from Mindspace Mall in Malad to Dahisar.

According to P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (projects) construction work for the ambitious second phase is slated to begin in November 2023.

Once completed, the 29.2 km long Mumbai Coastal Road will be an 8-lane expressway reducing travel time from North to South Mumbai to just 40 minutes. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has already announced that the Coastal Road will be named after Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.