Mumbai’s southern Coastal Road began carrying traffic on 11 March 2024, when its southbound section opened between Worli and Marine Drive. Further northbound openings followed that June and July. By 27 January 2025, BMC recorded the principal carriageways in both directions as operating between the Princess Street area and the Bandra–Worli Sea Link. [1] [2]
The roughly 10.58-km southern project combined reclaimed land, bridges, interchanges and twin tunnels. It offered a new route along the western waterfront, outside much of the existing street network. That operating road is distinct from the longer coastal transport schemes proposed or built farther north. [1] [2]
A municipal project with an earlier beginning
The road emerged from planning that crossed governments. The judicial record describes a Maharashtra technical committee established in June 2011, with the municipal commissioner as chairman, to examine coastal-road options. Its report was submitted that December, before the change of Union government in 2014. [3]
BMC’s own account dates construction of the southern project to October 2018. The municipal corporation commissioned and financed the works, with state and Union decisions on clearances and the courts shaping what could proceed. Its delivery should therefore be credited to the institutions responsible, rather than treated as a single national-highway project. [1] [3]
The civic diary put the revised estimated cost at about ₹14,333 crore, including contingencies and consultant fees. That is a dated project estimate, not an independently audited final bill. [1]
A working route and unfinished surroundings
The February 2025 budget reported 94.50% overall completion even though the principal carriageways were operating. That distinction explains how traffic can begin before every landscaping, interchange or associated work is finished. The budget also treated Coastal Road North and other links as separate projects. [2]
BMC described savings in journey time, fuel and pollution. Its budget statement did not provide a representative before-and-after study of those effects. A faster trip for a driver on the new road and reduced congestion or emissions across the whole city are different claims. [2]
The waterfront beside the traffic
Reclamation also affected the shoreline’s existing users. A fisheries assessment included in BMC’s 2020 compliance record anticipated that fishers around Worli would lose part of their historical nearshore fishing area. That warning describes an expected impact, rather than a quantified finding about household incomes after opening. [5]
The use of reclaimed public land continued to require legal decisions. In June 2026, the Supreme Court directed BMC to consider the garden and promenade master layout consistently with its earlier January order. The record distinguished limited fee-based recreation from residential or commercial property development for sale or lease. It was permission to consider a plan within conditions, not certification of a completed park. [4]
The road had become part of Mumbai’s traffic network. Alongside it, the waterfront was still being shaped through public-space plans, access arrangements and the obligations attached to land taken from the sea. [4]