Coastal Road Inauguration: All About The 94-Year-Old Rolls Royce That Eknath Shinde Rode
Rolls-Royce 20/25 became the best-selling model during the interwar period. Its success is credited with helping the brand combat the economic challenges of the Great Depression.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar on Monday rode a vintage Rolls Royce car to inaugurate the north-bound arm of the Dharamveer Swaraj Rakshak Chhatrapati Sambhaji Mumbai Coastal Road.
Raymonds Group Chairman, Gautam Singhania, posted a video showing Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar riding the Rolls Royce car—part of the businessman's vintage collection—on the Marine Drive to Worli route.
"It was an honour to have provided the Rolls Royce 20/25 Cabriolet manufactured in 1930 from my vintage car collection to Hon. CM Eknath Shinde ji and Devendra Fadnavis ji at the inauguration of the north-bound arm of the Coastal Road. Just like many Mumbaikars, I am looking forward to driving on this new stretch of road soon, which connects Worli to Marine Drive," Singhania wrote in the video post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Shinde was sitting in the front seat, along with Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in the back seat. They alighted from their official bullet-proof vehicles to board the roofless vintage steely-grey car, to traverse the length of phase 2 of the Mumbai Coastal Road.
The Beauty That Is Rolls Royce 20/25
The Rolls Royce 20/25, maintained by Singhania, is 94 year-old steely grey vintage car. It was a luxurious car known for its powerful engine, smooth ride, and timeless design and was the successor to the highly successful 20-hp Rolls-Royce 20.
The vehicle was produced between 1929 and 1936. It had a 3.7-liter inline-six engine and offered advanced engineering, including a four-speed gearbox. For those seven years, Rolls-Royce continued to enhance the 20/25 engineering over its production run and had 36 technical releases or series.
Rolls-Royce 20/25 became the best-selling model during the interwar period. Its success is credited with helping the brand combat the economic challenges of the Great Depression.
When Is Mumbai Coastal Road Open To Commuters?
Commuters will be allowed on the route from Tuesday. Like the southbound arm, which was opened for vehicular movement in March this year, the northern arm of the coastal road will be operational between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. on weekdays. Currently, the southbound arm is catering to vehicles travelling between Worli and Marine Drive.
The northbound arm will be operational only between Marine Drive and the vehicular interchange at Haji Ali. Civic officials said that the operational length of north-bound arm will be around 6.25 km, while the south-bound arm is operational on an eight-kilometre stretch. Pegged at Rs 13,000 crore, the coastal road is a high speed corridor that will connect Bandra-Worli Sea Link with Marine Drive through a series of tunnels, vehicular interchanges and bridges.
(with PTI inputs)
