Mumbai: Seven months after Breach Candy resident Nigum Lakhani, who lives opposite the Mumbai Coastal road interchange in the area, wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office with his concern that their demand for another exit from Nepean Sea Road was only being pushed from one table to another, he has finally received a detailed reply from the authorities stating that the BMC is awaiting PWD clearance for Nepean Sea Road access to Coastal Road.Lakhani first wrote to the PMO on Aug 8, 2025, and then kept forwarding the letter to first the state government before it eventually reached the BMC authorities who were forced to give him a detailed reply. “Recently, in compliance with the direction of the Chief Minister conveyed through a letter dated Dec 1,2025, the Municipal Commissioner, BMC, issued letter on Dec 26,2025 to the Additional Chief Secretary, PWD, requesting to handover a 10.5 m-wide land strip from MSRDC to the Coastal Road Department, BMC. This land is required for construction of an access road along Embassy Apartments within the MSRDC plot at Nepean Sea Road. The proposed road will enable: Exit from the Coastal Road to Nepean Sea Road & Public access to the Green Space/Promenade developed under the Coastal Road Project. However, no response has been received to date from the Additional Chief Secretary (PWD) or the VC & MD, MSRDC, regarding the above requests,” states the reply.The reply also stated how early planning documents, including a Joint Technical Committee report from 2011, had envisaged an entry and exit near Priyadarshini Park, where the coastal road tunnel emerging from beneath Malabar Hill would connect to Nepean Sea Road using reclaimed land. However, as the project evolved, seven alternative design options were examined by the Detailed Project Report consultant and placed before the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA).Based on environmental observations and technical recommendations, Option 7 was finalised, providing interchanges only at Amarsons Garden, Haji Ali and Worli. The Amarsons Garden interchange—also referred to as the Tata Garden interchange—was designed as a trumpet-type interchange to efficiently handle traffic from Bhulabhai Desai Marg (Warden Road), serving key areas such as Kalbadevi, Girgaon, Bhuleshwar, Malabar Hill and Kemps Corner. The civic body said the interchange location was shifted from Nepean Sea Road to Amarsons Garden primarily due to land availability.The BMC also relied on the Bombay High Court order dated July 16, 2019, which upheld the decision to locate the interchange at Amarsons Garden. In its judgment, the court stated that shifting the interchange northwards, as demanded by petitioners, would have required acquisition of private land from residential buildings such as Vaibhav Apartments and Lincoln House, while also obstructing access to a hospital and a school located nearby.
