Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sent a second notice to Growel's 101 Mall in Kandivali (E) to hand over the land reserved for a development plan (DP) road. The first notice was sent in February, 2024. "Since the management did not respond we sent a second notice last week," a BMC official told the FPJ on Thursday.
The Free Press Journal contacted Ravi Kothari, vice president, corporate communications department of the mall. But, he neither took the calls nor responded to text message. Assistant municipal commissioner of R/south ward Lalil Talekar said the company owning the mall has already been compensated for the land with FSI.
After multiple complaints from the Lokhandwala Residents' Association (LDR), which takes care of issues affecting citizens living in the nearby Lokhandwala township, and a social organisation, an NGO Spandan, the BMC asked the mall authorities to hand over the land, but in vain. Local M.P. Gopal Shetty too had taken up the issue.
One of the internal roads of the Growel's 101 shopping mall is a part of the development plan 2034, which will connect Akurli road to the Western Express Highway bypassing the Akurli subway. The Akurli subway is a major junction with heavy flow of traffic during the peak hours, which leads to severe traffic congestion.
After the mall authorities had closed an internal access road to the highway in January, it met with strong protest from the motorists as well as the residents association. Following multiple letters from the Association, Spandan and Mr Gopal Shetty, the executive engineer of the R-south ward had written a letter to the DP department requesting to take possession of the DP road.
The Free Press Journal contacted a senior official from the DP department who confirmed that a notice has been sent to the mall for the second time. “After receiving a request from the ward office, we wrote a letter to the Growel's 101 mall to hand over the possession of the 18.30 metre wide DP road. As we did not receive any reply from the mall, we have sent another notice to the mall a week back and are still waiting for their reply,” the official said.
With constant protest by the residents association, MP Gopal Shetty had also intervened in the matter and conducted a meeting earlier this month with the mall authority, BMC officials, traffic police and the residents. The MP directed the mall authorities to quickly handover the DP road to the BMC and also provide an immediate substitute road to the commuters.
Shetty had suggested the mall remove its entry gate near the highway and make necessary arrangements for the commuters within 15 days to provide a continued 60-feet-road till the highway.
Shishir Vivekanand Shetty from the Lokhandwala Residents Association (LRA) has again written to the assistant municipal commissioner of the R-south ward to ensure the availability of the access road at the earliest."
“We're eagerly awaiting the implementation of the 18.3 metres access road to the WEH at the earliest but there seems to be absolutely no movement on that front by the mall so far. We urge the BMC to get this going on priority which will bring tremendous relief to the horrible traffic-affected residents of Akurli road and hardships faced for years,” said the letter.
