Mumbai: Residents Rise Against BMC's Khar East Elevated Road Plan, Fear Homelessness and Displacement

Mumbai: Residents of Khar and Santacruz have protested against BMC's proposed elevated road connecting Khar East and Western Expressways. As many as 275 residential buildings and hundreds of chawls will be badly affected as the plans for the bridge have gone wrong. Fearing that bulldozers will be rolled over their homes and rendered homeless, residents have resorted to protests. The opposition is likely to intensify in the Lok Sabha elections.

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The BMC has taken up the work of the Khar East elevated road. Every year, a little rain causes traffic snarls near the Khar subway in the suburbs. It impacts the traffic on S. V. Road and the Western Expressway. The civic body has taken up the Khar East elevated route to break the deadlock on the Khar subway. 

1) The civic body decided to construct elevated roads in four parts with a budget of Rs 2,400 crore. 

2) However, this elevated route will result in about 275 buildings standing from Khar East to West Expressway, Patel Nagar, V. N. Desai Hospital and the huts and chawls from Maratha Colony being destroyed. Some of the residents have been living in the area for 80 years. Locals say the civic body has completely neglected the buildings and chawls here in the drawing of the route. 

3) What will happen to the homes of the displaced residents? Where will they be given a house? How will they be rehabilitated? There was no clarity from the civic body on this.

"They will face many problems if the original residents are relocated. This elevated route is of no use to Khar Santacruz residents environmentally and overall. The Santa Cruz East Residents Association is opposed to the project. We will make our stand clearer in the next few days." — Paresh Vora, Treasurer, Santacruz East Residents Association.

"Some residents of Golibar, Patel Nagar, and Maratha Colony will have to leave their homes due to the Khar subway elevated route. Two to three families live together in a chawl house. Their rehabilitation will create a lot of problems. There are a lot of issues like children's schools and health. If the houses are demolished, the slum dwellers will come to the streets. So we are opposed to the elevated path." - Vinod Rawat, President, Apne Ghar Pratishthan