The Malls Have Come, Now What About Some Water?
Narrow, Traffic-Choked Roads & Dry Taps Plague Mumbai’s Mall Zone From Malad
To Goregaon
Sandhya Nair | TNN
Nineteen-year-old Kushi Shah now simply says she stays near Inorbit whenever
friends ask her where she lives. She used to say that she lived in Malad
and, invariably, she would be asked how close her pad was to Inorbit. Going
direct to the basics now keeps conversations short, Shah says.
The malls in the Malad-Goregaon belt may have made the zone famous and
residents say they are happy that some of the fame has rubbed off on to
them. But the new malls have not solved the old problems, they say.
Shah, for instance, is happy that her friends from college – who live in
the Malabar Hill and Peddar Road areas – drive down to her place, and the
malls, every second weekend to hang out.
But her neighbours, and even their representatives in the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation, agree that one cannot live by malls alone.
The areas within most of the P wards have been facing a severe dearth of
water for quite some time, Congress corporator from a Goregaon constituency,
Sameer Desai, admits.
“The BMC supplies about twothirds of the daily requirement of an average
person every day,” he adds.
The story repeats itself in Malad (East). Most homes get a daily water
supply of half-an-hour to 45 minutes. “Then it depends on how much we store.
Most houses have installed booster pumps because of this,” Malad (East)
resident Mansi Deodar says Ironically, the area is flooded every monsoon.
Goregaon’s Shastri Nagar resident and teacher Renuka Nair dreads monsoons.
“My home goes under water every monsoon and the nullah here, which is the
main culprit, is never cleaned by the BMC. We have to even make arrangements
to get the flood water out of our homes,” she adds. Siddharth Nagar,
Motilal Nagar and Bhagat Singh Nagar are the other areas that are prone to
flooding. Ground-floor residents say they have grown used to taking shelter
in neighbours’, friends’ and relatives’ homes at least a few days every
monsoon.
Motilal Nagar resident Nathal Fernandes alleges the BMC has never even
tried to solve this big problem.
Traffic is another huge problem. College-goer and Sundar Nagar resident
Manjiri Malankar finds roads dug up throughout the year.
Commuting by train remains a nightmare – getting on to a train from
Malad or Goregaon during the morning rush hours requires “special skills” –
but the roads are not getting better, forcing most to take the train.
The plans for widening S V Road have been there for quite some time but
no one has acted on those plans. Residents are apprehensive of the
mushrooming of malls in every nook and corner of Goregaon and Malad as this
will only add to traffic woes; weekends on Malad Link Road are already a
nightmare, they say.
Redevelopment of old property is a big issue here, with lots of
buildings more than 30 years old. All this is adding to the pressure on
infrastructure, be it water supply or transport, say residents.
But there is one silver lining. “Ground-floor homes are being
discouraged,” Shastri Nagar, Goregaon (West), resident Sunil Manjrekar
says.
But the problems do not seem to have impacted property prices; they have
spiralled. “the rental market, too, is hot as young singles – working in
BPOs – are looking for places to stay near office,” realestate broker
Sudhir Bambwani says.
P-North (Malad) and P-South (Goregaon) Area: 43 sq km Boundaries: Aarey
Village and Kurar Gaon in the east to the Arabian Sea in the west and
Goraswadi and Valnai Gaon in the north to Chincholi Bandar Road in the south
Population 12.35 lakh Eating Houses 354 Municipal markets 5 Pay-and-park
stands 0 Water reservoirs 2 Number of slums 10 Public gardens & playgrounds
48 Shops & establishments 32,626 Permitted factories 4,252 Pvt industrial
estates 89 Constituencies 29 to 52
WHAT PEOPLE WANT
Everyone that TOI spoke to wanted a solution to the flooding during every
monsoon. Most areas face severe water scarcity; residents now want an
adequate supply of water . Residents here have been demanding a drama
theatre for the past 20 years. SAYING IT IN NUMBERS
DIRT OUTSIDE, GLITTER INSIDE: Residents say this choked nullah in Goregaon
is a major cause for the floods in the area (left); inside one of Malad’s
many malls, it is a completely different world (right)