‘Exclusively for the elite’: why Mumbai’s new motorway is a symbol of the divide between rich and poor

Mumbai’s coastal road is seen by campaigners as benefiting only a few of the city’s people, while the majority have to use public transport and are now finding access to the ocean more difficult than it used to be. Photograph: Nirmal G/The Guardian

Mumbai is known for its graphic inequality, its gleaming high-rises where the rich live with panoramic views of the Arabian Sea standing next to windowless hovels perched over drains. It is home to 90 of India’s billionaires, but also to more than six million slum dwellers, about 55% of central Mumbai’s population.

Now Mumbai has a new symbol of the gulf between rich and poor: a high-speed, eight-lane motorway on its western coast, which critics say serves only the wealthy despite being built with taxpayers’ money.