Bandra residents identify alternate parking spots to save Patwardhan Park
Bandra residents, who are protesting against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to build a parking lot below a plot adjoining Raosaheb Patwardhan Park, have identified six locations on Linking Road which can accommodate at least 400 vehicles
Mumbai: Bandra residents, who are protesting against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plan to build a parking lot below a plot adjoining Raosaheb Patwardhan Park, have identified six locations on Linking Road which can accommodate at least 400 vehicles.
Activist Zoru Bhathena, who along with the locals surveyed the area, said that 35 parking spots in basement parking below BMC’s Rang Mandir Auditorium and 15 at compound parking are lying vacant.
“About 60 of 100 parking spaces below Croma Mall, 25 in basement parking below NM Medical, 35 in basement parking below Taste of Punjab are unused. Thirty-five basement parking spots below Starbucks are locked and 35 more below KFC are either misused or encroached,” Bhathena added.
Spots to accommodate 250 vehicles along with 160 more coming up at Shoppers Stop in Bandra west will take the total number of vacant parking spaces to over 400 vehicles, according to residents.
“About 200 parking spaces available within a 100-metre radius of the park are either unused or misused. It is BMC’s duty under the Article 48A of the Constitution of India to protect and improve the environment. The BMC cannot abdicate its duties and build more parking spaces by destroying a park, when hundreds of existing car parking spaces remain used,” Bhathena stated on behalf of the protesting residents in his letter to the BMC.
With existing parking spaces lying unused, the residents opined that the plan should be scrapped.
Several locals along with Bhathena had attended the BMC’s pre-bid meeting last Friday to convey their displeasure over the plan. The BMC in the first week of March had floated a tender to accommodate 228 vehicles at an estimated cost of ₹74 crore and asked the residents to file their suggestions and objections on Saturday.
In their objections filed to the BMC, the residents alleged flaws in the tender. According to them, the tender stated that the project construction includes “ground floor” which was contrary to the provisions of the Development Control Planning Regulations-53 (DCPR) that allow onlyan area of 10-metre width along the road to be used for ingress and egress to the underground areas.
It was further pointed out that the tender showed three levels of underground parking, which was contrary to the provisions of DCPR-53 that allows only one or two levels.
In their objections filed on Saturday, the residents also stated that the tender reflects that the office has planned 228 parking slots, which is again contrary to the provision of DCPR-51 that vests the power to plan parking with the Parking Authority. It was also pointed out that Patwardhan Park was a TPS (Town Planning Scheme) plot and it was in violation of the TPS Building Regulations not allowing parking spots below parks.
The letter concluded that no development can be carried out in a park without high court permission or prior approval of the Tree Authority under the Trees Act, 1975, as per orders of the HC, which have not been taken into consideration.
A civic official when contacted said that the BMC will submit its replies to the residents’ objections on Monday.
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