New landscape to adorn Charni Road footpath
To evacuate burgeoning slums outside the station, BMC plans to hand over space to hospital for redevelopment.
Illegal slum dwellers near Charni Road station seem to be giving sleepless nights to residents of the locality as well as passengers of Western Railway (WR). Scores of slum dwellers have set up shanties under the Charni Road foot-over bridge on Queen’s Road.
The issue came to light when Charni Road Residents Group (CRRG) recently wrote a letter to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) about the slum menace. Speaking to this newspaper about the issue, Devendra Joshi, president of CRRG said, “The Charni Road station is one of the beautiful stations in south Mumbai. Especially now, the Saifee Hospital opposite the station has added to its beauty. But rising number of slums at the station premises is causing untold inconvenience to WR passengers. The place can be utilised for car-parking or for beautification. We have already written a letter to the BMC about it. But they don’t seem to be interested.”
Meanwhile, slum-dwellers at Queen’s Road said that they would not move from the place. “We have been living here since years. We have our family and children. Where can we go now? The authorities have to think about us too,” said an angry Devuka Teji.
Another slum-dweller, Navin Darvesh says, “We cannot be evacuated from this place. If BMC promises us to relocate then we are ready to move or else, we will stay put here.”
Vijay Kalam Patil, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Special) said, “I cannot interfere in this as it is the lookout of the respective ward officer. I have to undertake major demolitions on a routine basis.”
However, Ramesh Pawar, ‘D’ ward officer of BMC said that plans were afoot to give the place up for redevelopment. “We demolish illegal slums on Queens Road every week. But these slum dwellers are back. So to prevent them from returning, we plan to give the land to Saifee Hospital for development. This will make the place clean as well as slum-free. We have already started negotiating with the hospital authorities and we are expecting their reply,” Pawar said.