End of road for sea link project

“The final recommendations of the committee under Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar will include a combination of coastal roads,tunnels and sea link wherever necessary,” said one of the expert members of the committee. “A sea link costs up to Rs 500 crore per km,while a road on reclaimed land along the coast will cost a fraction of that. We believe that spending Rs 5,000 crore on a sea link used everyday by just 30,000 cars is a huge burden on the city.”

The Rs 5,100-crore Worli-Haji Ali Sea Link project,contracted to a consortium led by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd,is likely to be shelved if an in-principle nod comes through for the committee’s coastal road recommendations. The coastal freeway from South Mumbai to distant suburbs along the city’s north-west is expected to cost Rs 6,000 crore as per current estimates.