For some, the annual Mount Mary fair in Bandra brings a week of festivity. For many others, it is a nightmare they have to endure for ten days.
Unruly visitors, noisy hawkers and 24-hour traffic snarls have inconvenienced residents
For some, the annual Mount Mary fair in Bandra brings a week of festivity. For many others, it is a nightmare they have to endure for ten days. Lakhs of people throng the Mount Mary Church, clogging the already narrow roads. Harried residents are forced to remain indoors, spending a frustrated ‘holiday.”
Thousands of motorists, who use the roads around the church, this is a hellish week. It takes more than an hour from Bandstand to reach SV Road, Bandra. Even more time is lost when people return home.
Unruly visitors, noisy hawkers, tonking horns and almost round-the-clock traffic snarls stretch the patience of the people living nearby. Little can be done to change this as the fair has a 100-year traditional when the area was almost uninhabited. With the change in circumstances, there seems to be no thought to shift the venue elsewhere.
In emergencies like a fire or someone to be rushed to hospital, the sufferer’s are at their wit’s ends. The fire brigade or the ambulance cannot reach on time.
A harassed Julian Mathias says “September brings hazards every year. The commotion created by people and vendors is unbearable.”
Another resident, Martha Pinto says, “Untill decades ago, this was a great place. But now its becomes home to games, giant-wheels, merry-go-rounds and what have you. The place becomes filthy with garbage strewn all around.” Many residents are forced to park their vehicles elsewhere by the authorities.
For some, the fair happens only once a year. They argue that those who find Bandra fair chaotic, should not stay here. “The fair has a century-old tradition while those who complain have hardly lived here for a few decades,” they add.
Eric Mascarenhas says “the tradition cannot be changed for a few newcomers. If they had problems with the fair, they shouldn’t have bought houses around in the first place.”
Pathetic condition of roads only adds to the residents’ woes. The civic authorities had assured to repair four of them before the fair began. They are St John Baptist Road, Chapel Road , Mount Mary Road and Rebello Road. Nothing has been done.
With even Carter Road, Hill Road and Bazaar Road are in bad shape, diversions too are no solutions.
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