NGOs file PIL against Coastal Road design

Mumbai: The resident’s protest against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Coastal Road design is gaining momentum.

The residents of Breach Candy have filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Bombay high court (HC) demanding to shift the interchange to the adjacent Scandal point thereby saving 200 trees in Tata Garden.

The currently designed Coastal Road interchange at Breach Candy is going through the 1000 sq m Tata garden.

The PIL is filed by a few green societies namely Conservative Action Trust who questioned the legality to build Coastal road in CRZ areas, NGO Vanshakti who raised the adverse impact on marine bio-diversity due to Coastal Road, by Society of Improvement, Greenery and Nature managed by Breach Candy Welfare Group (BCWG) who asked to shift Breach Candy exit to Scandal point in order to save 200 trees at Tata Garden.

The secretary of BCWG Dr Nilesh Baxi said, “The Scandal point is reserved for the Coastal Road exit since 2007. The then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had handed over this plot to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) as caretaker. The plot is vacant since then. When the Coastal Road design was published we assumed the Breach Candy interchange would pass through Scandal Road only.”

“However, only in December 2018 we saw the markings inside the Tata Garden and learnt 200 healthy trees would be cut for the interchange. We kept requesting the BMC to shift the exit to the Scandal point, however, the BMC did not budge”, further said Dr Baxi.

The Breach Candy residents last week had also organised a protest where almost 200 residents had tied Rakhis to the trees that were in plans to be cut. Dr Baxi added, “The BMC is carrying the work in full swing.

They have almost completed the crucial main reclamation for the road from Priyadarshani Park (PDP) to Worli. To save them we decided to approach the court”.

The case is likely to heard in HC on April 9.

While, BMC asserted that the project design is published since long and the residents should not think about their locality only but the benefit of entire Mumbai.

“We will put our side in the court. The Coastal Road will save a lot of traveling time and is planned for convenience of Mumbaikars”, a senior civic officer said.