This story is from January 19, 2017

Traffic and parking woes plague affluent Andheri-Vile Parle belt

Traffic and parking woes plague affluent Andheri-Vile Parle belt
Representative image
MUMBAI: Civic elections come and go, but the quality of life remains a pipe dream for K-West ward residents. The overpopulated area, comprising Andheri (W), Vile Parle (W) and Jogeshwari (W) is threatened by the hydra-headed monster of traffic congestion, illegal parking and encroachments.
Traffic jams along S V Road in Andheri, Amboli, J P Road, Lokhandwala Complex and Juhu Circle are a motorist’s nightmare.
Actor Rakesh Bedi, a Lokhandwala resident and keen watcher of local issues, says, “The roads are slightly better paved than they were in 2014, but traffic has increased manifold.”
“Nothing has changed since the 2012 civic polls. Footpaths are still encroached by hawkers and the prospect of travelling to south Mumbai by road is as deterring as going to Pune or Satara,” says Congressman Amrish Patel, president of the Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal. Patel is MLA of the model Shirpur village in Dhule district of Nashik division.
Assistant municipal commissioner of K-West Parag Masurkar suggests that the solution to traffic lays in implementing the Development Plan roads network, mainly from JVLR extension to Link Road. Activists point out that these plans are held up owing to encroachment and pending slum rehabilitation authority schemes. If the new corporators pursue the matter and the encroachers are rehabilitated, the issue can be expedited.
The 2011 census put the population at 7.2 lakh. Since then the area has witnessed a boom of migrants from north India as well as Bangladesh.
Given its 23-sq km sprawl, K-West has 13 corporators—five belong to Congress, four Shiv Sena, two BJP and two are Independent, of which one leans towards the Sena. The area has two MLAs, Ameet Satam and Bharati Lavekar, both BJP. “If we forge an alliance with Sena, we will together win 10 seats. Even if the BJP goes alone I am confident of winning seven to eight seats,” claims Satam.

Meanwhile, Congress is gripped by infighting. K-West is the home turf of embattled Mumbai party president Sanjay Nirupam, who is facing rebellion from senior colleagues for sidelining them from manifesto and ticket issues. Nirupam did not respond to requests for comment.
The party’s corporator from Gilbert Hill, Mohsin Haider sounds confident. “I have earned goodwill by clearing mounds of garbage from my area and installing mobile toilets. Also, there is immense anger against Narendra Modi’s BJP among daily wagers who have lost their earnings after demonetisation,” he says.
In Lokhandwala Complex, which is beset by traffic and parking problems, Sena has installed hoardings claiming 480 BMC classrooms have been uplinked to enable ‘two-way’ videoconferencing and that the Balasaheb Thackeray Middle Vaitarna Dam made by the BMC is the ninth fastest constructed dam in the world.
Residents wonder why BMC’s tasks are being touted as the party’s achievements and pressing issues like water, roads and encroachment have been ignored. They also lament that encroachers and unlicensed hawkers have taken over swathes of S V Road, Adarsh Nagar and Jogeshwari. This issue is a tricky mess given that local netas patronize them. H S D’Lima (83), activist from Andheri gaothan, claims, “Corporators have a finger in the corruption pie, be it illegal hawking or construction. Before the last polls, I had approached Haider with RTI data, he has done nothing about it till date.”
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