Country's first coastal highway: BJP, Shiv Sena fight for credit

Ahead of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election slated for early 2017, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena both want to take credit for the country’s first 29.22-km coastal highway project. Small patches of roads in various Indian coastal states have a sea view but the BMC project, estimated to cost Rs 11,000 crore, will have about 40 hectares of green area — gardens, parks, jogging and cycling tracks along the highway. BMC has launched the geo-technical survey for the project. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has repeatedly said the entire project would become operational by December 2019 but Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, who claims to have had the idea way back in 2013, last week said only the first section of 13.43 km will be thrown open by December 2019.