BMC trims Fashion Street to shape

The civic body on Thursday came down heavily on 246 licenced shop owners at Fashion Street, more than a year after it asked them to follow Supreme Court orders.

Action was taken against the hawkers at the shopper’s paradise at Fort as they had breached orders passed by the SC, which forbade extending the shops beyond the permissible area.

Civic officials from the Licence and Encroachment Departments began demolishing illegal extensions made on top of and on the sides of the 384 shops since early on Thursday morning. On Wednesday, action was taken against 246 shop owners, and demolition will continue for the next couple of days, said civic officials. “For more than a year, our repeated pleas and warnings were ignored. This forced us to take action. They have misused our liberal approach for a long time now,” said Kalam Patil, deputy municipal commissioner for encroachment.

Ten anti-encroachment vehicles and 150 staff along with the Mumbai police implemented the demolition under Section 384 of the BMC Act. Soon after the demolition, representatives of the aggrieved shopkeepers met Additional Municipal Commissioner (City) RA Rajeev. It was agreed that a yellow line would be drawn in front of all shops which would demarcate the 1x1m area that can be legally used. Rajeev said: “The intention behind this drive is to beautify Fashion Street, and give it a uniform look.

For this purpose, we’ve asked them to have uniform roofing.”

The shops were allowed to come up at Fort nearly two decades ago by former municipal commissioner SS Tinaikar. The move invited the ire of residents, especially members of a private club located opposite the street.