Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, commonly known by its abbreviation LBS Marg, is a 21 km long, major arterial road connecting the neighbouring city of

Thane Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven talukas ...

with

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. It passes through heavily populated areas of the Eastern Suburbs in Mumbai and is heavily congested. Approximately, 3 lakh vehicles use this road daily. The road is named after

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...

, the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Route description

LBS Marg begins at Thane, extending from the Old Agra Road and the

Ghodbunder Road Maharastra State Highway 42, commonly referred to as Ghodbunder Road or G.B. Road, runs entirely through the district of Thane. It is one of the major roads leading out of Thane city and connects to the Eastern Express Highway coming from south ...

. It intersects the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) at Marathon Chowk. When travelling between Mumbai and Thane, commuters have to pay a toll. The toll gate (called ''naaka'' in

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

) is called ''Teen Hath Naaka''. LBS Marg then passes through all the eastern suburbs, from Mulund till Sion, where it joins with the EEH near the Sion Flyover. Both LBS Marg and the EEH pass through Thane and the Eastern Suburbs but they pass to the west and east of the Central Line respectively. LBS Marg has only 4 lanes. However, only 2 lanes are in use now due to ongoing metro work. It passes through residential and commercial areas making it more congested and encroached upon. On the other hand, EEH is wide, well-maintained and smooth. It goes through an uninhabited area where development is prohibited. LBS Marg also offers connectivity to the Western Suburbs when it intersects the Andheri – Ghatkopar Link Road and the JVLR. The road also intersects the BKC Road at

Kurla Kurla (Pronunciation: uɾlaː is a neighbourhood of East Mumbai, India. It is the headquarters of the Kurla taluka of Mumbai Suburban district. The neighbourhood is named after the eponymous East Indian village that it grew out of. It falls u ...

providing connectivity to the

Bandra Kurla Complex The Bandra Kurla Complex is a business and residential district in the city of Mumbai, India. It is a prominent upscale commercial hub which commands some of the highest property rates in the country. According to MMRDA, the complex is t ...

, and onward to

Bandra Bandra (Indian English, æːɳɖɾa also known as Vandre (Help:IPA/Marathi, �aːn̪d̪ɾe is an upscale coastal suburb located in Mumbai (Bombay) area of the Konkan division, Maharashtra, India. The suburb is located to the immediate nor ...

. It also offers connectivity to the Harbour Suburbs when it intersects the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road (GMLR). LBS Marg is connected to Kalina from Kurla via a 6m bridge over the

Mithi river The Mithi River (Pronunciation: iʈʰiː is a river on Salsette Island, the island of the city of Mumbai, India. It is a confluence of tail-water discharges of the Powai and Vihar lakes. The river is seasonal and rises during the monsoons. ...

. The Mumbai Metro Line 4, which will pass through LBS, is under construction.

Planning

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has had plans to widen LBS Marg since 1970. The BMC decided to revitalize and finance the project in 2012. The work will require the demolition of 2000 buildings, 80 per cent of which are commercial properties. BMC estimates the cost of acquiring properties for demolition to be . The plan was to widen LBS Marg to 6 lanes (a width of 120 feet) from 4 lanes (60–80 feet width). However, with metro construction work going on from the stretch from Thane to Ghatkopar, the width of the road has actually reduced in places to just 12 feet on either side.

Current status

The LBS Road is known for heavy encroachment and almost nil enforcement of traffic and civic rules or town planning guidelines. It is common to see vehicles encroaching footpaths, wrong-side driving by all types of vehicles including heavy goods vehicles and jaywalking in the absence of pedestrian crossings. The ongoing Metro construction work on the central median has resulted in the road width reducing to just 12 feet in certain pockets, with no footpaths for pedestrian movement. As a result, the vehicular speeds on the road have fallen to an average of 3 km/h (1.8 mph) during peak hours. In addition, the road has the highest number of flood-prone spots in the Eastern suburbs, with yearly flooding a common phenomenon.

Real Estate

Conversion from primarily an industrial region to a mixed-use area began in the 2000s. LBS Marg has several malls, apartment complexes and corporate offices along it. Some of Mumbai's most prominent malls –

R-Mall R Mall is a mall situated in Mulund, a suburb of Mumbai, India was opened in 2003. Developed by Runwal Developers Pvt. Ltd., the mall with a frontage of was designed by Chapman Taylor & Partners (UK). R Mall is a 4-storeyed air-conditioned mall ...

(Mulund), Neptune Magnet Mall (

Bhandup Bhandup (Pronunciation: ʱaːɳɖup is a suburban locality in Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra, India. The name ''Bhandup'' is derived from ''Bhandupeshwar'', one of the names of the Hindu god Shiva. An old temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, ...

R City Mall R City Mall is a shopping mall located in Ghatkopar West, Mumbai. The mall spreads across 1.2 million square feet with the capacity to house over 350 stores. The mall has over 194 shopping stores, over 66 food outlets, 10 entertainment areas, ...

(

Ghatkopar Ghatkopar (Pronunciation: �ʱaːʈkopəɾ is a suburb in eastern Mumbai. The area is served by the railway station on the Central Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway and the metro station on Line 1 of the Mumbai Metro. History Ghatkopar in ...

) and Phoenix Marketcity (

) – are located on LBS Marg. Godrej and Boyce IT Park, located in

Vikhroli Vikhroli (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, �ikʰɾoɭiː is a suburb of Mumbai located on the northeastern side of the city. The suburb has a railway station by the name Vikhroli on the Central Railway (India), Central Railway line. ...

, houses the offices of several IT firms. Corporates like

Accenture Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentur ...

, Capgemini, TCS,

Wipro Wipro Limited (formerly, Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. Thierry Delaporte is serving as CEO and managing director ...

, WNS Spectramind, ICICI Prudential, HCC,

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

and Cipla have offices on LBS Marg. Runwal Forests in Kanjurgmarg, Godrej Park Site and Raj Legacy in Vikhroli, Kalpataru Aura and The Address in Ghatkopar, and HDIL's Dreams and Whispering Towers in Bhandup are some notable residential complexes on LBS Marg. Some manufacturing facilities continue to exist on or near LBS Road, notably Johnson & Johnson (Mulund), Ceat Tyres, Asian Paints and ShangriLa Biscuits (Bhandup), Jai Hind Oil Mills (Kanjurmarg), Everest Spices and Godrej Industries (Vikhroli).

References

{{coord missing, Maharashtra Roads in Mumbai Memorials to Lal Bahadur Shastri