In the bustling metropolis of Mumbai, a new eight-lane motorway has become a symbol of the stark divide between the city’s wealthy elite and its struggling masses. Touted as a solution to the gridlocked roads, the coastal road project has been met with widespread criticism from activists and urban experts who argue that it caters exclusively to the privileged few.
The road, an engineering marvel, has slashed commute times for the city’s affluent car owners, allowing them to zip through the congestion in a mere 10 minutes, compared to the previous 45-minute slog. However, the reality is that an estimated 64% of Mumbai’s 22.5 million residents rely on overcrowded buses and trains, with up to 10 passengers dying daily on the local train network.
“The road is exclusively for the elite,” says Avlokita Shah, an environmental activist. “The billions spent on this project should have been directed towards improving public transport to benefit the majority – repairing roads, adding more buses with more stops and routes, and expanding the metro.”
Hussain Indorewala, a professor at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies, echoes this sentiment, calling the coastal road “welfare for the well-to-do” and “a massive transfer of wealth to the rich that imposes costs on the rest.”
For the city’s working-class residents, like Praveen Shastri, a shoe shiner at Churchgate railway station, the new road holds little relevance. “It’s not for people like me,” he says. “My commute remains the same – never getting a seat on the train to Borivali where I live. At the end of a long day, it’s even more tiring getting home.”
Proponents of the project, such as investment banker Vivek Tiwari, argue that the road is an “amazing piece of infrastructure” that will ultimately benefit the economy and, by extension, the wider population. However, urban anthropologist Nikhil Anand dismisses this view, stating that motorways are a “20th-century response to a 21st-century problem” that only serve private car owners rather than addressing the need for improved public transport.
The coastal road has also come under fire for its environmental impact, with critics warning that the reclamation of land from the Arabian Sea has destroyed the livelihoods of the Koli fishing community and damaged the fragile mangrove ecosystem that acts as a natural barrier against tidal surges and erosion.
As the second phase of the road project moves forward, the city’s residents are left to grapple with the consequences of a development that has widened the divide between the haves and the have-nots. For many, the road has not only made access to the ocean more difficult but has also robbed them of one of Mumbai’s most cherished assets – the beauty and tranquility of the Arabian Sea.
