Mumbai, February 17: A private mall in Kandivali East opened up a public road within its boundary after 17 days as neighbouring residents raised heavy objections to it. The issue was taken up to North Mumbai’s Member of Parliament and due to his intervention, the mall partially opened up the road. However, constant protest by the local residents association forced the mall to open up the road completely.
Growels Mall in Kandivali East had shut down an important public road inside its boundary leading to a severe traffic congestion at the Akurli subway junction. The said road is a part of the Government's Development Plan and connects the Akurli Road and service road to the Western Express Highway. According to residents of the neighbouring areas, the mall had closed down the gates for over 15 days citing maintenance work.
Closure Causes Traffic Congestion:
Jagdish Bhopale, Senior Police Inspector (Traffic) of Samta Nagar division said, “The Big Bazaar junction is the busiest junction in the area. Earlier a lot of people used the Growels mall access road but since it was closed down, it created a compulsion for everyone to travel straight to the junction where both the service roads are dug up rendering only half the roads to be used further creating chaos.”
As the mall had shut the gates to the access road, the motorists were forced to travel via Akurli subway junction. This led to severe traffic congestion at the junction due to various ongoing infrastructure works including the subway widening work.
LRA Takes Up Issue With MP Gopal Shetty, BMC:
As soon as the Lokhandwala Residents Association (LRA) of Kandivali East learnt about the issue, the association took up the issue with the mall authorities as well as North Mumbai MP Gopal Shetty and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's ward officer, after which the road was partially opened up for two-wheelers and three-wheelers.
MP Gopal Shetty said, “Once a DP road is shown on the map, it is a public road. A lot of landlords have blocked DP roads and I have been trying to open them for people. Everyone should cooperate so that people at large can benefit.”
Lalit Talekar, Assistant Commissioner, R South ward said, “The said road is the part of DP and hasn't been handed over to us by the mall. Still, as soon as we received an instruction from the MP, we talked to the mall authorities and asked them to temporarily open up the road for motorists.”
Mall Authorities Succumbs To Pressure:
However, the resident association pushed the authorities to ensure that the mall opens up the road for four-wheelers as well. The association followed up with the authorities of BMC’s R-South ward and ensured that the mall authorities live up to their promise and open up the entire road. Due to constant objection by the resident organisation, the mall opened up its gates for four-wheelers on Saturday morning.
Shishir Vivekanand Shetty, President of Lokhandwala Residents Association Kandivali said, “We thank R-South Ward as well as our Elected representatives who intervened in the said issue immediately to ensure optimum comfort to all residents especially of Kandivali East. Since this was implemented today, various agencies will get an extra 2-3 hours to fasten the Akurli subway widening work.”
