Two years after beginning the Coastal Road project, the BMC is finally focussing on compensating fishermen for the loss in their livelihood they would incur. In a welcome professional move, the civic body has issued tenders to appoint consultants for studying the damage, shortlisting the number of fishermen affected by the project and finalising compensation.

There should be absolute transparency from stage 1 of this compensation endeavour, which means that the tender process and then awarding of the contract or work to the consultant should be spot on and not mired in any controversy. We have seen projects or infra riddled with accusations of corruption or favouritism from the start, and this is something that should be avoided here. While there will always be those who raise bogus questions and file dubious claims, if there is any merit or credibility in accusations, they must be quickly and effectively dealt with, so that any wrongdoing is scotched at the inception stage itself.