Marine Drive and the Gateway of India will no longer have clean-up marshals as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to withdraw them temporarily from the two tourist spots in South
Marine Drive and the Gateway of India will no longer have clean-up marshals as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to withdraw them temporarily from the two tourist spots in South Mumbai. The move follows complaints from tourists about harassment by clean-up marshals, who have been deputed to keep the city clean and stop citizens from littering in public places.
About 40 clean-up marshals are deputed to a total of five places in South Mumbai — Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Churchgate, Marine Drive, Gateway of India and Colaba. CST, Churchgate and Colaba also see a lot of daily commuters, which has acted as a deterrent for the BMC to withdraw marshals from there as well.
Meanwhile, Gateway of India and Marine Drive see a lot of tourists who, officials claim, are ‘not aware’ of the city’s rules. This has led to many complaints against marshals, especially by tourists who drag the marshals to police stations after heated arguments.
The assistant commissioner of the A ward, Kiran Dighavkar, said: “We do not want to scare tourists or discourage them from visiting these popular spots. Since the clean-up marshal programme has not been well publicised, we will first create awareness about it and then start placing marshals at these spots. They have been only temporarily withdrawn.”
Meanwhile, the BMC has also issued a show-cause notice to the contractor in charge of deputing the marshals.
