this story originally appeared in on mar 20 2017mumbai the eastern water front of the city has never quite had the allure that the western seafront has had but all that may change in the next few years the mumbai port trust mbpt is giving finishing touches to a master plan that will completely revamp the land along the eastern water front one of the key features of the plan is a 7km long marine drive between mazagaon docks and wadala nearly twice the length of the queens necklace in the west the mbpts masterplan which will cover 350 hectares of land will be finalised in the next four months confirmed mbpt chairman sanjay bhatia after the eastern water front development plan is finalised we should be in a position to float the tenders for the projects within one year and in the next five to six years you will have a completely new city on the eastern coast of the city bhatia told mumbai mirror the plan also includes an ecological garden which will be five times the size of the 89hectare oval maidanfor those missing a proper parking space for their private yachts fret notthe marina on the water front which can park around 300 yachts will have you covered there are also plans to connect ferry wharf or bhaucha dhakka with navi mumbai and alibaug through water transport a pick up point will be located somewhere near sewri or wadala as wellthere is good news for tourists to elephanta caves as there is a plan to build a ropeway between the island and haji bunder currently the popular tourist spot is only accessible through ferry service a cable car or ropeway to the island will have an added benefit of taking electricity supply to the island which currently does not have it the mbpt also has plans to build a complex over 15 hectares of land to house central government offices cgo so as to bring all the offices currently spread across the city and occupying prime real estate under one roof to make this master plan a reality around 10000 hutments on mbpt land occupying nearly 50 hectares will have to be rehabilitated the big question remains how much will all this cost mbpt chairman bhatia says it is too early to talk about funds right now detailed plans are not being prepared for each project so it will be difficult to estimate how much each component will cost however projects like ropeway marina convention centre entertainment hub etc will be done through public private partnership ppp model and projects like marine drive ecological park will be funded by mbpt funds for which will be raised through development of cgo the central government departments and public sector undertakings who will occupy offices in this complex will have to pay a lease at market rate an overarching revamp of the countrys oldest harbour was declared right after nitin gadkari took charge of the shipping ministry