School building in Mumbai to make way for mall?

More than 3,000 students of Mahatma Gandhi Vidyamandir, Bandra will be left in the lurch if the government succeeds in its plans to tear down the historic school building, to make way for a shopping mall.

Afraid that a mall will replace their school, students, parents, teachers and social workers have decided to appeal to chief minister Prithviraj Chauhan.

“In his inaugural address, the CM had assured the state that he will not encourage builders. But now, ironically, while we are talking of Right to Education on one hand, local politicians are lobbying to prioritise the mall over the school,” said Milind Chindarkar, one of the school trustees.

One of the few renowned Marathi medium schools in the city, it celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. But even its long history and academic tradition could not shield it from being considered secondary to a commercial complex. The school is one of the many government-owned buildings in Kherwadi that will be relocated to make way for commercial complexes.
Citing that they cannot afford maintenance of these buildings any longer, the government has allegedly decided to hand over 98 acres out of the 132 to private builders. Sources said that since the remaining 34 acres has unauthorised constructions, the government refuses to touch it.

Unfortunately, if this project comes through, the school, which has a tradition of sports, will lose its sprawling 60,000 sq ft playground. It specialises in kabaddi, kho-kho, malkhamb, langdi, etc. Also, sports such as volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, gymnastics are also played here. It is one of the few schools to have bagged Rani Laxmibai and Topiwala trophy for sports four times. “Once the school is taken over, its playground will go. It will be a waste if we are forced to move to a new place where we will not get such facilities,” said Chindarkar.

School authorities fear that in time not just the games but the entire school will close down. As the new place allotted to the school is far from Bandra, school authorities are afraid that students from Khar and Santa Cruz will have trouble in commuting the long distance to school daily.

“The new place is inconvenient. Most of our students are from the western suburbs and pockets of Bandra. They are from economically backward sections of society and cannot afford to travel by taxis and autorickshaws every day. Slowly the number of students coming to school might dwindle,” he added.

School authorities even suggested to the government that they build the mall in the new place allocated to the school.
“They require nearly 60,000 sq ft to build the mall. The new land is precisely that size. But the builders do not want that land because of low market value,” he said.

He added that if a mall comes up in their present neighbourhood that too will shoot up property rates, making it difficult for the lower middle class people.