Mumbai: The inauguration of the first phase of Mumbai Coastal Road project has been postponed due to undisclosed reasons, claimed sources on Saturday.   

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was scheduled to inaugurate the phase one today but the ribbon cutting ceremony has been postponed to March 11, claimed reports citing officials. 

Earlier, CM Shinde went on an inspection tour of the newly made road where he had informed that the lane connecting Worli with Chowpatty would be operational by January. 

Later, speculations was rife that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would cut the ribbon of the phase-I project remotely, but the plan was cancelled and another date of March 9 was set. 

However, civic officials have confidently announced that phase one will be fully completed by May, comprising the two lanes from Marine Drive to Worli and other facilities coming up in the vicinity, which will slash travel time from the current one hour to barely 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, the delays in making mega-projects available for public use has evoked sharp criticism from the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi top functionaries like Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, Aditya Thackeray, Kishore Tiwari, Congress’ Nana Patole and M. Arif Naseem Khan, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leaders.