Notice to 26 roadside religious structures
Mumbai The BMC Thursday served notices to 26 religious structures that have come up on footpaths and roads. Following a state government order to probe the number of such unauthorised religious structures, the BMC surveyed areas of South Mumbai and found 23 temples, two mosques and a chapel occupying large areas on footpaths and obstructing the movement of pedestrians. The civic body will demolish these structures if they are found illegal.
The structures are predominantly in Parel, Shewri, Kalachowkie, Naigaon and Dadar. They have to show documents to prove they have been at those spots before September 29, 2009. Assistant municipal commissioner of BMC’s F south ward Harshad Kale said the government has ordered them to demolish structures set up after that cutoff.
“They have to reply within the next three days, otherwise we will demolish them. These are small structures but they still obstruct traffic on road and take up a lot of space. Also, daily rituals cause small gathering of crowds on busy junctions,” said Kale.