November 18, 2025: Mumbai’s talent pool is vast, but perhaps its most enduring skill is turning routine civic upgrades into prolonged sagas. Several major projects — including key road links, crucial bridges, a Rs 670-crore hospital, and even the repeatedly “rejuvenated” Powai Lake — continue to languish in bureaucratic slow lanes.
Over the past seven years, funding was consistently approved, proving that money was never the core issue. Instead, familiar obstacles took centre stage: paperwork stalled without explanation, land parcels claimed by multiple stakeholders, and rehabilitation efforts progressing at a glacial pace. These delays have trapped six significant projects that represent everything the city professes to prioritise — easing traffic, preserving heritage, strengthening healthcare, and creating more accessible public spaces.
Each initiative began with urgency-laced declarations, sanctioned budgets, and active tendering, only to slip quietly into inertia. Many of these works were conceived before 2017, yet several remain half-built or barely advanced. Together, they form an unfortunate inventory of the BMC’s recurring struggle to maintain momentum, even on straightforward assignments, underscoring how essential civic improvements can become long-running cliffhangers in Mumbai’s landscape.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
