Underground shopping plaza and subway with escalators are on the cards, stall owners resist relocation
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's plan to convert Linking Road into a well-organised shoppers plaza by decongesting roads may face not one but many hurdles. The civic body will need approvals from different departments including the State Government, Mumbai Fire Brigade, Traffic, Police, Water and Sewerage departments.
The BMC also plans to create a shopping plaza by reducing at least 30 feet from the existing 120 feet of main arterial road — Linking Road, which will not have any scope of widening in the future. MLA Ashish Shelar has sought the 'in-principle' approval for his dream project of an underground shopping plaza, a basement parking lot to be constructed at Raosaheb Patwardhan Garden and a subway with escalators for pedestrians to ease traffic on the road.
However, permissions to de-reserve the traffic island from State Urban Development Department needs to be done. Licensed stall owners of Linking Road have objected to the plan claiming that it will only bring in new illegal hawkers once they are relocated. "BMC has demolished 15 licensed stalls while taking action against illegal hawkers and projected that they have cleared the roads. Now there are new hawkers there and the civic body is not even renewing our license, which we hold since 1972. It is the question of our livelihood. We will not allow this to happen. We want to see all the permissions for the project before they ask us to leave," said a stall owner.
Licensed stall owners claim that they are not opposed to relocation. However, the civic body is planning to cramp up all stalls from 33rd, 32nd and 35th Road, Linking road footpaths, footpath on MTNL exchange and the footpath opposite MTNL exchange in Khar west on 50 meter stretch in pigeonhole like 200 odd stalls in a row. "There are at least 10,000-15,000 shoppers visiting us on a daily basis. On weekends and festivals the number of shoppers increases to 50,000 plus. These shoppers will have to fight for space on a 50 meter stretch. There will be utter chaos, " said a stall owner.
Aftab Siddique, a civic activist and Chairperson of 33rd Road Khar ALM opposes the plan. He says that there is a simple solution to the entire problem, but the civic body wants to take the difficult route. "We had suggested that if 2 meter from both sides of Patwardhan Garden in L shape is removed, all the stalls can be pushed back and accommodated. BMC can put railings to ensure that traffic is smooth. But in the name of beautification of the area they want to spend crore of rupees. Patwardhan garden is lying unused since political leaders are pressurising BMC and not even allowing any activity nor letting children play", said Siddique.
Siddique said, "BMC is showing only a rosy picture to the public and does not want to address the real problem. What will the Police and BMC do about ill legal hawkers on the road, double parking, and other building compounds that are encroached upon. I request all the authorities concerned to holistically approach the issue. They need to do site inspection and take stock of ground reality. Otherwise the area is being beautified just for the sake of it."
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 "Linking Road")
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