South Mumbai Residents Demand New Coastal Road Exit to Break '300-Metre Gridlock'

Mumbai News: South Mumbai residents are intensifying their "

Unlock the Exit" campaign, demanding an additional off-ramp at Nepeansea Road on the new Coastal Road. While the multi-billion-pound expressway has slashed travel times between Bandra and Worli, motorists claim the journey ends in frustration. A missing exit has turned the final 300 metres into a 25-minute bottleneck, prompting thousands of citizens to sign petitions and challenge the 2016 planning decisions that removed the crucial link.,The 300-Metre Irony,For many residents of Malabar Hill and Breach Candy, the Coastal Road is a tale of two speeds.

Drivers can zip from the Bandra-Worli Sea Link to the Amarsons Interchange in under ten minutes, only to spend nearly half their total travel time crawling toward Mukesh Chowk, reported The Times of India. ,Also Read: Mumbai Metro 9 Opening: Pod Taxis, and Tunnel Projects to Reshape City's Commute ,"

The Coastal Road was meant to ease traffic, not simply shift the bottleneck," says Mehul N. Shah, a resident and leader in the diamond industry. He notes that the lack of a Nepeansea Road (NSR) exit forces all northbound traffic into a single congested corridor, neutralising the benefits of the high-speed road.,A "

Missing" Solution,The campaign group, Unlock the Exit, argues that the solution is both technically feasible and historically supported. Their research reveals:,The 1991 Development Plan and a 2011 Technical Committee report both recommended an NSR exit.,The 2016 Detailed Project Report (DPR) mysteriously dropped the exit without a public explanation.,MSRDC Land: A strip of land currently under the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation could accommodate a new exit without disrupting planned gardens or promenades.,Growing Community Mobilisation,The movement has evolved from local grumbling into a data-driven campaign. So far, the group has:,Collected over 5,000 signatures on petitions.,Secured endorsements from major housing complexes, including the 495-flat Godrej Baug.,Launched a social media outreach programme under the handle @UnlockTheExit.,Nandini Chabria, representing the Breach Candy Residents Forum, stresses that the congestion now poisons the entire Breach Candy-Kemps Corner-Malabar Hill corridor.

Local roads, already burdened by school buses and illegal parking, cannot cope with the diverted Coastal Road traffic.,Official RoadblocksDespite the pressure, progress remains stalled by bureaucracy. While the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) expressed interest in the plan in late 2025, they are waiting for other departments to cooperate, the report stated. ,"BMC issued a letter in December 2025 to the PWD, requesting the handover of a 10.5-metre-wide land strip... But no response has been received to date," confirmed Mantaya Swami, Chief Engineer of the Coastal Road project.,Residents continue to dispute claims that local opposition caused the exit's initial removal, demanding instead that the government use current traffic data to fix a "flawed" design.,Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Mumbai, India and around the world.