Beautification of city to take centre-stage soon

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to roll out an array of infrastructure and beautification projects, by the end of October.

Additional municipal commissioner Dr Sanjay Mukherjee has said that by the end of this financial year, the city will have a major emphasis on infrastructure projects with beautification projects taking the centre stage.

The civic body has approved a capital of Rs50 crore to deck up the entire shoreline of the city and two forts.

Beaches including Girgaum, Dadar, Mahim, Bandra and Juhu are set to get a facelift — with installation of new high-mast lamps, security railings, lifeguard stations and developing small gardens/parks near the beaches.

"While planning extensive development of parks, gardens and open spaces, the civic body will be striving to blossom the beaches as tourist hubs," Mukherjee said.

According to the plans, the sun-kissed beaches of Mumbai are set to be modeled on lines of three foreign coasts famous for their sea-side development and recognition as international must-visit places. The corporation has eyed the Long beach in California, Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles) — both in USA — and the Manly beach (Sydney) of Australia to be the models.

As per information, the first beach to undergo facelift will be Juhu beach, followed by Dadar and Gorai beaches. Plans are being fast-tracked by the corporation to complete lighting at the beaches before November.

"The tender of the Juhu beach project is out and we expect the work to start very soon. Similarly, the tenders for the rest of the beaches will be out by August end and work is slatted to commence by first-week of October," Mukherjee said. He added that the makeover cost of Juhu beach is estimated around Rs20 crore. The remaining Rs30 crore will be utilised for the beautification of other beaches.

With the clearance from the coastal authorities to install poles and lights to arrive soon, plans are now being drawn by the civic body on the additional features of development around the beaches.

Like the beaches, the civic body also has set a programme to beautify the Worli and Bandra forts. According to the corporation, the plans to develop the two heritage have been sent to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

"We are awaiting the response from ASI. Once it is received, tenders will be out and work will start in a month's time," a senior official said.

While plans to beautify the Sion Fort — to convert Nehru Garden into a theme-based garden, connecting the garden and the fort through a walkway, create a stone mural that depicted the seven islands that came to constitute Mumbai, make arrangements for sequence seating in the garden and set up a canteen — being stalled by ASI, the civic body has now put serious amends on its plans for the new proposed project.

The restoration of the fort, which once marked the boundary between the British-owned Parel Island and the Portuguese-owned Salsette Island, had begun in 2009. However, it came to a grinding halt midway due to paucity of funds.