The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has recently disclosed through a Right to Information (RTI) request that it has imposed a total of INR 35 crore in fines on contractors involved in the Mumbai Coastal Road Project. Despite the scale of the fines, the project’s deadlines have been persistently missed, and no new completion date has been set.
The ambitious Coastal Road Project, aimed at enhancing Mumbai’s infrastructure, has encountered significant delays, sparking concern among stakeholders. According to the RTI details, the BMC has sanctioned fines of INR 11.63 crore for delays in Part 1 of the project. The original completion deadline for this segment was October 12, 2022. However, this timeline has already been extended three times—first to June 9, 2023, then to September 10, 2023, and most recently to May 22, 2025.
Part 2 of the project, which spans from Baroda Palace to the southern end of the Bandra Worli Sea Link, has seen a fine of INR 16.13 crore imposed. The initial deadline for this section was October 15, 2022, but the deadline has been rescheduled multiple times, with extensions granted to October 6, 2023, October 7, 2023, and the latest to October 25, 2024. For Part 4 of the project, which has reached 91% completion, a fine of INR 7.25 crore has been levied.
The initial deadline for this phase was October 12, 2022, with the completion dates extended to May 25, 2023, November 26, 2023, and April 2, 2024. Recently, Larsen & Toubro, the contractor, has formally requested an additional 181-day extension, citing multiple reasons for the delay. Critics, including RTI activists, argue that the imposed fines are disproportionately low when compared to the project’s rising costs. The delays have exacerbated the financial burden, ultimately borne by taxpayers. This discrepancy underscores a broader issue in the management of large-scale public infrastructure projects, where ambitious timelines and financial penalties often fall short of ensuring timely completions.
