Mumbai News: Dadar Residents Oppose Redevelopment, Want Flower Market Moved Out Of City

Mumbai: Dadar residents have opposed the redevelopment plan of Maasaheb Meenatai Thackeray Flower Market citing the lack of survey reports, feasibility studies and public consultations. The residents have demanded that the flower market should be demolished and shifted outside the city limits to reduce traffic congestion in Dadar.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has planned a conventional heritage-type refurbishment of Maasaheb Meenatai Thackeray Flower Market located at Dadar’s Senapati Bapat Marg.

The redevelopment plan, which had started early in 2024, has finally moved forward as the BMC has appointed a consulting architect for the planning and designing of the market’s redevelopment.

However, Dadar residents have opposed the redevelopment plan citing traffic, health and urban planning concerns. Chakachak Dadar, a social organisation working to highlight civic issues in the locality, has written to Maharashtra chief minister and BMC chief demanding to scrap the redevelopment plan and demolish the existing market.

The organisation’s letter, dated March 29, alleged that the project is being pushed forward without conducting crucial survey reports and feasibility studies while neglecting the severe infrastructural, environmental, and public health implications. The residents have alleged that the project was sanctioned without assessing its strain on Dadar’s already overloaded infrastructure.

The letter alleged that the redevelopment plan violates urban planning principles of Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR), which states that market redevelopment should only be permitted if it improves urban conditions. It also added that the project threatens to destroy the last remaining open spaces and violates basic living conditions.

The residents have demanded the BMC to scrap the redevelopment project and immediately demolish the existing flower market and shift it outside Mumbai city limits, ensuring a well-planned, traffic-free commercial hub. The letter stated that the market is the cause of constant noise pollution in the locality while the encroachment od market stalls onto the roads has worsened traffic snarls.

Chetan Kamble, founder of Chakachak Dadar, said, “Dadar is a historically significant residential and cultural hub of Mumbai, not a dumping ground for commercial encroachments that threaten public safety. The residents have had enough of chaotic traffic, pollution, lack of space, and deteriorating living conditions. We need to restore Dadar’s residential nature by creating public spaces like gardens, pedestrian walkways, and parking areas instead.”