Walk right in: BMC removing fences around gardens to ease public access

To ease public access to gardens and maidans in Mumbai, the civic body has begun to remove the fences around them. This will also help monitor the maintenance of open spaces, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation says.

The civic body on Tuesday removed the fencing around the one-acre garden beside Oval Maidan near Churchgate; and around a garden in Vikhroli East. "We have also started work on the garden north of Oval Maidan, facing the high court building, and should complete the work in the next two days," said a gardens department official, adding, "We will then move on to the other reserved grounds and play grounds in the city."

Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas, who is in charge of open spaces and gardens, said, "It is important that all open spaces remain open to people. The fences around open spaces were not only making them inaccessible to people, but also blocking the view."

He added that with fences removed, the BMC can monitor the maintenance of the open spaces more more effectively. "We can check if the contractors responsible are cleaning up the garden regularly," he added.

The civic body owns 1052 vacant open spaces in the city, and has already awarded to private contractors the maintenance contracts for around 700 of these.

The removal of fences around open spaces comes at a time when the BMC's comprehensive policy on open spaces is pending with the group leaders of the BMC for almost eight months. It is yet to be sent to the state government.