There has been complete neglect by all the authorities to develop open green spaces in our city Mumbai. Most of the parks which exist also are mainly occupied by people playing cricket or some other sport. There is no place to go if you want to spend a leisurely day in Mumbai.

There are several seaside spots in the city which offer a leisure option for the citizens of Mumbai. Some of these are Marine Drive, Girgaum Chowpatty, Breach Candy Park, Haji Ali, Worli Sea Face, Bandra Reclamation, Band Stand, Carter Road and Juhu Beach which extends upto Versova. Although we have several seaside spots, all are relatively small and without any decent infrastructure.

I propose that we connect all these seaside locations of Western Mumbai with a wide promenade which has a separate walking, running and bicycle track. The promenade should be planted with lot of trees through the stretch to add an extra green cover in the city. Most of the promenade exists in different parts of the stretch, all we need to do is to connect all the existing promenades to create a city-wide sea face. The existing promenades can be widened and uplifted. New promenades will have to be built to connect the existing ones. We can call this project 'Mumbai Western Seaface'.

Once this is done, we will have a long and continuous seaside stretch of atleast 20 kms in our city. We have a long coastline but has never been utilized properly due to poor planning and neglect for the pedestrian community. If our city can build coastal road for cars, why not a coastal road for the pedestrians and cyclists. Since many years, the authorities have promised us walking tracks and bicycle tracks, but they have never been able to provide and maintain one. Most cities in Europe have given equal footage to cycle tracks as roads. This should not be considered a luxury but a basic right to be provided by the government. 

A promenade from Marine Drive to Bandra Carter Road will have multi-fold benefits. It will raise the standard of living of our citizens in every possible way- happiness, fitness, social relations. We can go for leisurely strolls on this Western Seaface with our family, do some marathon training, cycle non-stop from Bandra to Marine Drive in less than an hour - these are just few examples. The Western Seaface can become a major tourist attraction and can make Mumbai a major tourist spot. This will help the overall economy of the city. 

I can write several pages of the benefits of this project. The benefits will only be realized when action is taken. I call upon the all the relevant authorities - BMC, MMRDA, Maharashtra Governemnt, Government of India - to immediately implement this project. We should set a deadline of December 2020 to complete this project.