Mumbai Coastal Road Open Spaces Project: Here’s How a Transport Project Is Being Turned into a Public Green Lung
Designed to alleviate traffic, Mumbai’s Coastal Road also reclaimed a portion of scarce urban land, doubling the challenge of putting it to responsible use. About 70 hectares of reclamation land have been set aside for public open space along this corridor, but as usual, it was limited due to a lack of funding and maintenance ability.
In 2025, the municipal authority identified these open spaces and entrusted their development and maintenance as a long-term CSR project of Reliance Industries Limited. The project, worth around ₹400 crore, aims to convert reclaimed land from the sea into gardens, promenades and public facilities, with no commercial use. It is often lost on the masses that this is not a property reallocation.
It is a public-space intervention aimed at addressing Mumbai’s chronic lack of open space, forming a seemingly never-ending “green lung” next to one of the city’s biggest pieces of infrastructure.
- The open-spaces project transforms reclaimed coastal land into permanent public green infrastructure rather than commercial real estate.
- CSR-led development shifts long-term cost and maintenance away from the municipal budget while keeping land fully public.
- The project reframes the Coastal Road as both a mobility corridor and a civic, environmental asset for Mumbai.
