Mumbai Coastal Road Project: 9,000 Mangroves to Be Cut, 60,000 Trees Affected in Total
For a coastal city like Mumbai, mangroves serve as crucial natural barriers against erosion, flooding, and storm surges, safeguarding shorelines and local communities.
As part of the ambitious second phase of the Mumbai Coastal Road project, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will cut down up to 9,000 mangrove trees, and another 51,000 mangrove trees will be affected, according to official records.
The proposed coastal highway will connect Versova in the western suburbs of Mumbai with Bhayander, a satellite town in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.The BMC’s R/Central ward office has called for people’s suggestions and objections over the project’s environmental effects, the last date being April 21.
Environmental sanction to the project was accorded by the Ministry of Environment last November. Minutes from a meeting between the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA), BMC, and state environment personnel show that the project would impact a combined total of 60,000 trees, including mangroves.
Mangrove habitats are of paramount significance to the coastal ecosystem. To a city like Mumbai, they provide natural protection, screening from coastal erosion, tidal flooding, and storm surges. They stabilize sediments through their dense root networks and also reduce the impact of waves and currents of water. Eastern and western coasts of Mumbai both support large mangrove patches, but in recent decades, rising urbanisation and infrastructure growth have caused an apparent decline in their density.
The MCZMA minutes further indicated that the proposal had also requested the diversion of 102 hectares of forest land to enable the project. While the total area of mangrove cover to be cleared is comparatively small, almost 60,000 mangrove trees will be affected, out of which 9,000 will be felled.
The zones where mangroves will be impacted the most come under the E and F packages of the second phase of the coastal road. The second phase has been divided into six packages:
- Package A: Versova to Bangur Nagar (4.5 km)
- Package B: Bangur Nagar to Mindspace, Malad (1.66 km)
- Packages C and D: Twin tunnels (3.9 km) from Mindspace to Charkop, Kandivali
- Package E: Charkop to Gorai (3.78 km)
- Package F: Gorai to Dahisar (3.69 km)Estimated to cost ₹20,000 crore, Phase 2 of the Mumbai Coastal Road will be around 25 kilometers long and will include high-speed corridors, underground tunnels, cable-stayed bridges, and vehicular interchanges.
The suggested alignment passes through ecologically sensitive zones such as mangrove forests, creeks, and reserved forest areas, giving rise to huge environmental concerns.Environmentalists and local communities have raised alarms over the loss of green cover and potential damage to coastal ecosystems. As the deadline for public feedback approaches, the debate around development versus conservation is once again at the forefront in Mumbai’s urban planning landscape.
