Mumbai: Online Campaign Opposes Bandra Reclamation Football Ground Conversion Into Convention Centre

Mumbai, June 26: Amid mounting opposition, the state government's proposal to convert the 8,450 sq m football ground at Bandra Reclamation into a convention and exhibition centre has sparked an online campaign demanding its withdrawal. The petition calls for the playground to be preserved under its existing sports reservation and upgraded with modern sports facilities instead.

The proposal was recently cleared by the BMC's Improvement Committee. Meanwhile, an online petition titled 'Bandra Needs Playgrounds, Not Convention Centres – Save Bandra Reclamation Football Ground', launched on Thursday by the We Are Stronger Together Foundation, had garnered 1,827 signatures by Friday evening.

Foundation founder and petitioner Furkan Shaikh said the Bandra Reclamation football ground is an irreplaceable public sports facility for local youth and players, arguing that convention centres can be built elsewhere, while sacrificing one of Mumbai's few remaining open spaces would set a dangerous precedent for the city's shrinking recreational land.

Petition Seeks Withdrawal

Addressed to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the petition demands that the government withdraw its proposal to convert the Bandra Reclamation football ground, retain its existing playground and sports reservation, upgrade it with better sports infrastructure, identify an alternative site for the convention and exhibition centre, and protect playgrounds and open spaces across Mumbai from unnecessary conversion.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MLA Aaditya Thackeray, in a social media post, slammed the BJP-led BMC for converting the Neville D'Souza Football Ground into a convention centre reservation, alleging the move favours contractors while robbing Mumbai's youth of a vital sports ground. He warned it would also aggravate traffic congestion in Bandra Reclamation and set a dangerous precedent for the conversion of public playgrounds.

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BMC Defends Proposal

The BMC, however, maintained that the plot was originally reserved for an Exhibition Centre in the 1983 Development Plan. Officials said it was redesignated as a Sports Ground while preparing DP 2034 because the land was then lying open and being used as a football ground. They asserted that the current proposal merely restores the reservation envisaged in the original Development Plan.

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