Mumbai: BMC to felicitate 2012 panel that gave nod to Coastal Road, ex-mayor not invited

Sena (UBT) leader Sunil Prabhu/ X

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) invited the former chairman and members of the standing committee that gave the go-ahead to the Coastal Road project in 2012 to a felicitation event today. However, the BMC forgot to invite Sunil Prabhu, the former mayor under whose leadership the House of the civic body gave its nod to the project, which was recently partially opened. The standing committee, under the chairmanship of Yashwant Jadhav, eventually approved the Rs 12,000-crore project in September 2018. However, the BMC has invited only committee members from 2012.

The felicitation programme will be held at 3 pm today (Friday). Rahul Shewale, the then-chairman of the committee, is now a Shiv Sena (Shinde) MP. A BMC official said they also invited members of the standing committee from all parties. The event will be held in the House instead of the standing committee hall.

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Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Sunil Prabhu, the former mayor, said, "The original concept was ideated by Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and he was the driving force behind its creation. I was the mayor and the process unfolded at a faster rate during my tenure. Mumbaikars know who is behind the Coastal Road and it is mischievous to take political credit for someone else's hard work."

Iqbal Singh Chahal, administrator of the BMC, did not comment on the issue.

The standing committee of the BMC was a statutory body that had the power to sanction finance-related proposals. The mayor, the leader of the corporation, is responsible for giving final approval to proposals of all statutory committees in the House.