Ridge Road in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill opens to motorists after over two years – Times of India

MUMBAI: After a gap of 2.5 years, the BG Kher Road, also known as the Ridge Road, in the upscale Malabar Hill area reopened to motorists over the weekend. The road had been kept shut following a landslide in August 2020.
Malabar Hill had witnessed two landslides in the year 2020 in a span of 50 days, which had damaged the Ridge Road and resulted in a cave-in on N S Patkar Road. In June 2021, the BMC had completed works on construction of the retaining wall at NS Patkar Marg, or Hughes Road, after which the road was opened up, but works on the stretch along Ridge Road remained incomplete.
Even now, work on the BG Kher Road is not fully complete, said civic officials, pointing out that painting, erecting cast iron railings and installation of light poles are still pending on the stretch. Officials said this should take at least a month as traffic police may not give permissions for all the works to be taken up at one go.
Restarting of the road took a while despite the city witnessing VVIP movement as the hill slope had been damaged since the August 2020 landslide, said officials, adding that after consulting experts, it was decided they would wait for a significant period to ensure there was natural soil stabilisation.
“Also, instead of RCC, gabion wall was executed following suggestions from IIT-B. The width of the road varies from 6.5 metres to 13.5 metres, and concrete road is laid across. The paintings along the stretch are planned in a way so as to ensure the natural beauty of the locality is enhanced,” said an official. During the landslide, a water pipeline under the road was also damaged which had to be replaced, along with other utilities, like storm water drain lines, said the official. Interestingly, it is also the only road in the recent past in South Mumbai where dual ducts have been placed all along the 800-metre stretch.
Additional municipal commissioner P Velrasu said, “We have put ducts on this stretch. The electric cables and other utilities can lay their new utilities on this stretch. In all new Cement Concrete (CC) road tenders, we have made the utilities ducts compulsory. However, for old utilities which lie below these roads, we still have a leakage problem for which many still request permission to dig up newly laid CC roads. The department is working on that problem. But for all new utilities laying, BMC will have the ducts.”
Malabar Hill resident-Indrani Malkani, a trustee of V Citizens Action Network (VCAN), said that it was high time the road opened to traffic. “Immediately as the road was opened up, videos started doing the rounds on local residents’ groups about the stretch now being operational. The move, however, is clearly only a temporary arrangement as one can see there is work left to be done,” said Malkani.