Worried residents, Kolis, raise concerns about Versova-Dahisar coastal road

MUMBAI: On Thursday, residents of Charkop in Kandivali, and the Koli community whose livelihood is dependent on fishing in Gorai, Madh and Marve, held a meeting with local MLA Sanjay Upadhyay and the BMC’s bridge department executive engineer Vaibhav Gandhi. The two representatives were there to hear suggestions and understand the grievances of people regarding the coastal road’s Phase 2 from Versova to Dahisar.

The residents’ grievances ranged from the cutting of mangroves and damaging the environment to having their view obstructed. “We bought a house in Charkop for the peace it has to offer and the greenery everywhere. If you cut the trees and build a wall in front of our houses, how are we supposed to live here?” said a resident, one of a crowd of about 100 people who had gathered for the meeting at K B Patil School in Charkop’s Sector 8.

Rishi Shirke, another resident, suggested using pillars instead of a wall so that the view would not be obstructed. “In the early years when we moved here, with due permission from BMC, we planted trees which have grown well over the years,” he said. “The authorities have assured us that they will not be affected but we believe that they will be damaged during the construction itself.”

Mili Shetty, an environmental activist living in Charkop, said that the road in Sector 8 was so lush that around 2,000 people from the surrounding areas would come there for morning and evening walks. “If they are going to take away our Nature from us, then we want something on the lines of the mangrove park built in Gorai or the Nature trail in Malabar Hill,” she said.

Other concerns were voiced apart from the environmental ones. Some residents asked for a wider service road connecting the buildings so that school buses and emergency services could move easily. Others raised the issue of adequate parking. MLA Upadhyay suggested that people demand community parking in the area to resolve the issue.

The coastal road project will stretch over several areas in the suburbs: Versova, Andheri Lokhandwala, Mindspace Malad and Malvani, passing through Sector 8 in Charkop. A cable-stayed bridge going over the Gorai creek will connect Charkop, Gorai and Dahisar, from where it will merge with the Dahisar-Bhayandar link road.

The Koli community from Charkop, Manor, Eksar, and other places depends on Gorai creek for its livelihood during the monsoon when fishing in the sea is banned, and fear that this could get affected by the construction of the coastal road.

The BMC engineer and MLA took the suggestions into consideration and assured the people that wherever possible, they would be taken into consideration.

As per a 2018 order of the Bombay high court, any project involving the cutting of mangroves will require permission from the court, which the coastal road project is currently awaiting.