Schoolkids join fight to save SoBo park
By Alka Dhupkar
Schoolchildren gave up their Sunday morning recreation to protest against a BMC proposal to cut through the Kamala Nehru Park in Malabar Hill and build a road.
They gathered at the park and vowed not to let the civic body shrink one of the city’s most loved green spaces.
Residents fear around 100 trees might be chopped to make way for the proposed 535-metre road. If approved, the project will eat up 2,540.55 square metres of the garden.
“We feel safe to walk here as there are no cars or two-wheelers. We also run and play on this hill. Why does the BMC want to take this space away from us?” asked another student, Jyoti Genta.
“Motorists who want a new road should first visit the garden. We will show them how the road will destroy all this beauty.”
Devidas Patharkar, a drawing teacher, said that they were not against new infrastructure. " The question is do we really want to ruin this beautiful place for a road?"
The BMC has proposed to convert the Chiranji Lolyalka Marg, also known as Siri Road Hilly Walkway, into a one-way vehicular road. Pedestrians have been using the road to walk to the main road from the park for several years now. The park area comes under the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) and the municipal corporation will have to seek permission from the Union Environment Ministry for the road.
Last week, residents launched a campaign to save the green stretch by painting messages like ‘Mala kapu naka (don’t axe me)’ and ‘save us from BMC’ on the trees and walls at the park.
The Shiv Sena, which runs the civic body in an alliance with the BJP, has also opposed the project, a brainchild of BJP legislator Mangal Prabhat Lodha.
“We will give residents our full support to save the garden. We cannot lose such green spaces in the name of development,” said Sena MP Arvind Sawant. By
Congress corporator Anjana Yadav, who is a member of the BMC’s improvement committee, said that the party would oppose the proposal in the next meeting. “When we met residents during the field visit, their anger was evident. I completely understand their concerns and support them,” she said.
Sanjay Shirke, who represents Gagangiri Maharaj Temple Trust, one of the groups spearheading the campaign to save the park, said that residents would take to the streets if officials didn’t scrap the project.
BJP LEADER DEFENDS PROJECT
Lodha said that only a handful of people were opposed to the project. “If we don’t build this road, then within five years the hill will be encroached upon. I am ready to meet people and listen to their suggestions,” he said, adding that the road was an important project for south Mumbai which has not seen any new infrastructure in the past 10 years.
Lodha said that experts from IIT, Bombay, had studied the project and 3,000 residents had signed a support document.
Schoolchildren gave up their Sunday morning recreation to protest against a BMC proposal to cut through the Kamala Nehru Park in Malabar Hill and build a road.
They gathered at the park and vowed not to let the civic body shrink one of the city’s most loved green spaces.
“If BMC workers come here with their axes, we will hug every tree and won’t let them damage the park,” Chirag Ramani, who lives nearby and uses the park’s walkway to reach his school.
Residents fear around 100 trees might be chopped to make way for the proposed 535-metre road. If approved, the project will eat up 2,540.55 square metres of the garden.
“We feel safe to walk here as there are no cars or two-wheelers. We also run and play on this hill. Why does the BMC want to take this space away from us?” asked another student, Jyoti Genta.
“Motorists who want a new road should first visit the garden. We will show them how the road will destroy all this beauty.”
Devidas Patharkar, a drawing teacher, said that they were not against new infrastructure. " The question is do we really want to ruin this beautiful place for a road?"
The BMC has proposed to convert the Chiranji Lolyalka Marg, also known as Siri Road Hilly Walkway, into a one-way vehicular road. Pedestrians have been using the road to walk to the main road from the park for several years now. The park area comes under the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) and the municipal corporation will have to seek permission from the Union Environment Ministry for the road.
Last week, residents launched a campaign to save the green stretch by painting messages like ‘Mala kapu naka (don’t axe me)’ and ‘save us from BMC’ on the trees and walls at the park.
The Shiv Sena, which runs the civic body in an alliance with the BJP, has also opposed the project, a brainchild of BJP legislator Mangal Prabhat Lodha.
“We will give residents our full support to save the garden. We cannot lose such green spaces in the name of development,” said Sena MP Arvind Sawant. By
Congress corporator Anjana Yadav, who is a member of the BMC’s improvement committee, said that the party would oppose the proposal in the next meeting. “When we met residents during the field visit, their anger was evident. I completely understand their concerns and support them,” she said.
Sanjay Shirke, who represents Gagangiri Maharaj Temple Trust, one of the groups spearheading the campaign to save the park, said that residents would take to the streets if officials didn’t scrap the project.
BJP LEADER DEFENDS PROJECT
Lodha said that only a handful of people were opposed to the project. “If we don’t build this road, then within five years the hill will be encroached upon. I am ready to meet people and listen to their suggestions,” he said, adding that the road was an important project for south Mumbai which has not seen any new infrastructure in the past 10 years.
Lodha said that experts from IIT, Bombay, had studied the project and 3,000 residents had signed a support document.
