Mumbai, May 31 -- Nearly a year after the Mumbai Coastal Road was opened to traffic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has selected Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to develop 53 hectares of reclaimed open space along the road. The company will take at least three to four months to prepare a plan, following which work on realising new open spaces along the road from Priyadarshini Park to Worli will commence, said sources in the civic body. On Thursday, BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani signed the letter of intent (LoI) outlining terms of the deal between BMC and RIL. "Reliance was one of the companies that evinced interest in developing open spaces along the entire stretch of the Coastal Road," said Gagrani. Another official from the Coastal Road department said RIL was the only firm that met the requirements specified in the call for expressions of interest (EOI). "It was also the only company that had experience in developing such a large tract of open space," the official said. The company will take at least three to four months to revert to the BMC with a design, said Gagrani. "We will approve the design after discussions, perhaps involving external landscape architects," he mentioned. HT reached out to RIL for comments on the development, but did not get any response. Initially, the BMC had planned to develop open spaces along the Rs.13,000-crore coastal road of its own accord. The plan was rolled back due to estimated additional expenditure of Rs.400 crore and increased capital expenditure on big-ticket projects, including the northward extension of the coastal road. In January this year, the civic body issued a call for expressions of interest (EoI) to develop and maintain the open spaces for a period of 30 years, extendable by another 30 years. The open spaces would include gardens, parks, water bodies, cycle paths and pedestrian walkways. Commercial activities would be allowed subject to permission from the Supreme Court, the EoI mentioned. The move to allow commercial activities irked many Mumbaikars, who saw it as a bid to privatise these spaces. Meanwhile, an online petition seeking an urban forest all along the coastal road has garnered over 40,000 signatures. Nandini Chabria, a member of the core team behind the proposal, said the 53-hectare open space could be divided into three zones. The seaward side could have wind-breaker and salt-tolerant trees like Kewda, Sultan Champa, and Powderpuff mangrove while the side adjacent to the carriageway could have evergreen and deciduous trees like Jamun, Bakul and Amaltas. The zone in the middle could have shade-giving trees and flowering shrubs to attract butterflies, she said. "This is a rare opportunity for us to turn the open space into a rich, climate-smart green zone," said Chabria. "Rising temperatures in the city, increase in sea levels and deteriorating air quality warrant the development of such a zone." While the proposal was submitted to the BMC this week, municipal commissioner Gagrani said it would "definitely be considered" while finalising the plan for the open space....