South Mumbai locals flay BMC over Coastal Road specifications

The Asian Age.  | Devashri Bhujbal

Metros, Mumbai

The residents have also questioned the abrupt cancellation of the recently scheduled meeting with Marine Drive residents.

BMC has refused to reply to any of the questions saying that the matter is subjudice.

Mumbai: The residents and activists of south Mumbai are miffed with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for its reluctance in providing a detailed presentation of final alignments of the coastal road.

A total 122 members of the ‘Save Our Coast’ group (comprising residents fighting the coastal road project), have written emails to BMC’s chief engineer (coastal road), Mohan Machiwal, questioning the outdated transport study about interchanges, environmental clearance for the project, and violation of the Supreme Court order banning fresh work.

The residents have also questioned the abrupt cancellation of the recently scheduled meeting with Marine Drive residents.

However, the BMC has refused to reply to any of the questions saying that the matter is subjudice.

The Marine Drive residents said that Mr Machiwal abruptly cancelled the presentation scheduled on June 7 for unexplained reasons after a few residents asked him for detailed drawings of the coastal road plans and specifications. The civic officials however clearly said that the cancellation was carried out only after the senior counsel’s advice.

“Firstly, we asked the residents to come to the project site for the presentation but they insisted on having it on their building terrace. Secondly, we also do not want any controversy when the matter is already in court. We will reply to any questions in the court,” a senior officer said, requesting anonymity.

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