Palm Beach Road to soon reserve 3 lanes for sports enthusiasts on Sundays | Mumbai news

NAVI MUMBAI: Sports and fitness enthusiasts can look forward to using three lanes of the scenic Palm Beach Road every Sunday. A proposal was worked out by the civic body and city police to promote exercise culture, and it is expected to fructify from January.

An eight kilometre stretch along the coastline from Moraj circle to Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) headquarters has walking and cycling tracks which is already popular among walkers, runners, and cyclists. Under this new plan, one side of the six-lanes in Palm Beach Road will be closed to traffic from 5am to 10am on Sundays to be used for other activities by those who want to workout. Temporary dividers will be placed on the other 3-lanes to direct bidirectional vehicular movement during these hours.

Kalidas Shinde, NMMC commissioner and international marathon runner, said, “We want to promote health and fitness in the city and Palm Beach Road is one of the most attractive places in the city for it. It is a popular environment for such activities and is also preferred for marathons.” NMMC had organised a marathon here last week. He said that safety measures will soon be in place for people on Sundays.

Milind Bharambe, police commissioner of Navi Mumbai and fitness enthusiast, undertook planning the number of barricades and dividers to be installed, location for stop points and estimated number of volunteers required to assist people on Sundays. He said he will study the proposal and check for compliances before working towards providing the facility. He added that costs involved should not be high.

“The road will be closed temporarily for around 5-6 hours only on Sundays, when it is not used much. We will ensure that residents and motorists will not be inconvenienced on these days as many people will to turn up,” Bharambe said. Shinde too expects residents from the neighbouring cities to flock to Palm Beach Road on weekends to take advantage of the facilities.