Residents of Bandra Reclamation have urged the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to reclaim and widen a portion of K C Marg, allegedly occupied by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) before completing ongoing sewerage and cement concrete road works.
The Bandra Reclamation Area Volunteers Organisation (BRAVO) has raised concerns that the continued occupation of the road stretch could permanently affect its planned width and make future widening efforts more difficult and expensive.
In a representation submitted on June 30, BRAVO stated that K C Marg could not be developed as per the original layout plan because MSRDC had established its office on a significant portion of the proposed road area and had not vacated the land despite repeated requests.
“It is truly astounding that not hawkers, not slums, but a government organisation has illegally occupied a public road,” the trust said in its representation.
According to BRAVO, the original layout prepared by the erstwhile Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (BMRDA) in 1970 had planned K C Marg as a 36.6-metre-wide road connecting the Lal Mati slum area in the east to the BMC pumping station in the west.
However, when MHADA constructed seven high-income group residential buildings in the area between 1986 and 1988, only around 18.3 metres of the proposed road width was developed. The remaining portion, according to the residents’ group, continues to remain under MSRDC’s occupation.
The matter has gained urgency as the BMC sewerage department has started laying underground sewer lines along K C Marg to connect with the new sewage treatment plant, while the roads department is simultaneously undertaking cement concretisation work.
BRAVO trustee Neela Shinde alleged that the disputed portion was never intended for MSRDC’s office use. “The wall is being built after the removal of huts by the court order,” she said. “Today the MSRDC office is situated inside the wall and the office used this wall for many years till they built their own wall to show it is their property by grabbing the land meant for the 36-metre road.”
Shinde further claimed that the boundary wall was originally constructed following a court order to prevent fresh encroachments. “The wall was built by the high court order to protect the area from slum dwellers,” she said. “MSRDC, at that point, did not have an office there. Much later, it constructed a makeshift office inside the boundary wall and grabbed the land where the 36-metre road was supposed to be built. The government conveniently did not work on the plan to make the road 36 metres. And MSRDC conveniently grabbed the land by claiming that the boundary wall was its property.”
BRAVO has requested the BMC to examine the issue, recover the allegedly occupied section of K C Marg and restore the road to its sanctioned width before completing the ongoing infrastructure works.
Source: Hindustan Times
