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 (; previously known as Thana, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city located on the northwestern side of the list of Indian states, state of Maharashtra in India and on ...

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 ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. 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 (; born Lal Bahadur Srivastava; 2 October 190411 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as Minister ...

, the

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Route description

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

Ghodbunder Road Maharashtra 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 sou ...

. It intersects the

Eastern Express Highway The Eastern Express Highway, abbreviated to EEH, is a city express highway serving the cities of Mumbai and Thane. It is one of the busiest roads in the Mumbai Metropolitan Area and is a part of the National Highway 48. It is a north–south ...

(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 people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

) is called ''Teen Hath Naaka''. LBS Marg then passes through all the eastern suburbs, from

Mulund Mulund (Pronunciation: uluɳɖ is a suburb in the north-east of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It comes under the zone railway station on the Central Railway line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It was first the railway station of the Mumbai ...

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: Help:IPA/Marathi, uɾlaː is a suburb of East Mumbai, India. It is the headquarters of the Kurla taluka of Mumbai Suburban district. The neighbourhood is named after the eponymous Bombay East Indians, East Indian vill ...

providing connectivity to the

Bandra Kurla Complex The Bandra Kurla Complex is the central business district of the city of Mumbai, the financial capital of India. It is a prominent upscale hub and is considered to be one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the world. According t ...

, and onward to

Bandra Bandra ( æːɳɖɾa is a coastal suburb located in Mumbai, the largest city of the Konkan division in Maharashtra, India. The area is located to the immediate north of the River Mithi, which separates Bandra from the Mumbai City district. It ...

. It also offers connectivity to the Harbour Suburbs when it intersects the

Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road Jeejabai Bhosle Marg, the official name of the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road (GMLR) or the Mankhurd-Ghatkopar Link Road (MGLR), is a road in eastern Mumbai connecting the suburbs of Mankhurd and Ghatkopar. It connects to the Mumbai-Pune Express ...

(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 The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), or the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is the governing civic body of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra. Salman Khan Is Now Brand Ambassador of BMC from 2016. The BMC is India ...

(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 (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 Shiv ...

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, close to which, the City's International Airport is located. The area is located on the Western corner of the Western Ghats and marks the beginning of the Ghats from M ...

) and Phoenix Marketcity (

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

Vikhroli Vikhroli (Marathi pronunciation: �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 line. Manufacturing plants of Godrej are also si ...

, houses the offices of several IT firms. Corporates like

Accenture Accenture plc is a global multinational professional services company originating in the United States and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that specializes in information technology (IT) services and management consulting. It was founded in 1 ...

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and d ...

, TCS,

Wipro Wipro Limited () is an Indian multinational technology company based in Bengaluru. It provides information technology, consulting and business process services. It is one of India's Big Six IT services companies. Wipro's services include cloud ...

, WNS Spectramind,

ICICI Prudential ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited is an Indian life insurance company in India. Established as a joint venture between ICICI Bank Limited and Prudential Corporation Holdings Limited, ICICI Prudential Life is engaged in life insur ...

HCC HCC may refer to: Computing * Hobby Computer Club, Netherlands * Holland Computing Center, University of Nebraska * Human-centered computing Companies and organizations * HCC Insurance Holdings, Texas, US * Hampshire County Council, England * Hind ...

Colgate-Palmolive The Colgate-Palmolive Company, commonly known as Colgate-Palmolive, is an American multinational corporation, multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in ...

and

Cipla Cipla Limited is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Mumbai. Cipla primarily focuses on developing medication to treat respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, depression, paediatric and var ...

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