Parked vehicles replace plants

As soon as you enter Appasaheb Marathe Marg in Prabhadevi, you realise that the lane leads to one of the most posh areas in the city. The street is lined with fancy stores and youngsters huddle around street food stalls grabbing quick bites during and after work. Then, there is Lloyds Garden, a genteel building with security guards placed at intervals around the building.

The residents of Lloyds Garden were quite surprised when the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) removed some plants that were placed to stop outsiders from parking their vehicles on the pathway alongside the building. The pathway now looks like a parking space for high-end cars though it was decked up with planters just two days back. “The planters were removed by BMC staff after someone complained about them,” says Vidhyasagar Patil, security supervisor at Lloyds Garden.

The plants were removed after  a nearby resident, posted a tweet asking the Mumbai police to take strict actions against the Lloyds Garden residents for blocking the road with planters. The residents of Lloyds Garden and the security staff are highly disappointed with the action. “It’s difficult to understand people’s mindsets. The plants were placed to prevent outsiders from parking their vehicles, but now, the situation is the same. Planters were better than vehicles,” says a resident on the condition of anonymity. A security guard  sighs, “No one from the building complained about the planters. Now, someone has complained. They seem to be okay with the space being used to park vehicles.”

When the BMC South Prabhadevi was contacted for a response, queries weren’t responded to despite repeated attempts.

Many residents are unhappy with the removal of the planters. Talking about the repercussions the move will have on the beauty of the area, Damini Saudagar, who works in a bank near Lloyds Garden, says, “On the one hand, people say we should plant trees, and yet we want to remove them from the lanes to make space for parking. The planters made the lane look so beautiful.”

Girish Sharma, another resident, says, “They don’t mind vehicles  being parked, but the plants bothered them. Because in front of a BMW, what value do tiny plants have?”

Responding to the tweet posted by the resident, another user Ridhikesh Lakhote, uploaded a picture of Yashovan Towers near Mahim post office, and said that residents are preventing parking in the area by placing planters. Shyam Asnani, who is a resident of Yashovan Towers, responded to the accusation by saying, “What is wrong in that? This is not a parking area, it’s a residential area and anyone comes and parks their vehicles here. The planters aren’t harming anyone. We regularly water them and they look beautiful. I don’t understand why people always have a problem with positive actions.”

One cannot discount the menace of parked vehicles. Vehicles parked around bends make navigation difficult while those parked outside shops obstruct the view. However, in a city starved of space, motorists find it difficult to find parking space. Steps need to be taken to make parking convenient while also maintaining the beauty of the place. Only a well-considered space delineation policy can help solve this conundrum.