Underbellies of Mumbai’s flyovers to get green look

MUMBAI: After opening the city’s first park under a flyover in Matunga, the municipal commissioner has directed BMC officials to come up with suggestions to beautify flyovers in their areas. They also discussed illegal encroachment and desilting work. At the meeting with junior officers, civic chief Ajoy Mehta applauded the first garden created under the flyover on the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road in Matunga.He directed all zonal deputy municipal commissioners to choose two flyovers under their jurisdiction and prepare plans for their beautification. In many areas, the place under flyovers have become dump-yards are not in any public use.
An official said they are studying how the BMC can develop areas under flyovers across the city after beautifying them. Ahead of the inauguration of the Matunga garden, the BMC ruling party and opposition indulged in a political war, with both the parties attempted to take credit for creating the garden.
During the meeting, Mehta also issued instructions to officials to remove all encroachments on two crucial roads, SV Road in the western suburb and LBS Marg in the eastern suburb. Officials said both the roads witness heavy traffic regularly and illegal encroachment on these roads created bottle-neck at some places. Officials have been asked to remove such encroachments.
The BMC has also come up with a list of 125 nallahs , which, officials claim, had been cleaned but have again become garbage dump yards. The civic body will put display boards near such nallahs along with cleaning details. Officials claim that despite repeated requests, residents continue to throw garbage in the cleaned nallahs, which can cause flooding during the monsoon.