The residents of Kandivali East will soon get relief from the daily traffic congestion at Akurli subway as the member of parliament Gopal Shetty has directed Growels 101 Mall to hand over the development plan road to the municipal corporation. Shetty has also directed the mall authorities to immediately open up one of its entry roads to connect it with the Western Express Highway to the size of 60 feet according to the DP plan, saving people from the heavy traffic congestion at Akurli subway.
On Friday, North Mumbai MP Gopal Shetty along with the residents of Kandivali east conducted a meeting with the authorities of Growels Mall regarding the long pending issue of handing over the DP road in its vicinity to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Since the road is still a property of the mall, residents have been demanding its transfer to the BMC according to the development plan.
Along with the engineers from the BMC and traffic police, Gopal Shetty asked the authorities to work in correspondence with both the departments to make a road available for the commuters at the earliest. Shetty has also asked the mall authorities to open up its entrance road on the highway side and modify it into a sixty feet road for the motorists to reach the Western Express Highway without having to cross Akurli subway, especially for the commuters coming from Kandivali East and Kandivali railway station.
Shetty said, “I have personally visited the mall and taken note of possible changes that can be made to give relief to the commuters. In the first phase, the mall will remove its entry gate so that the sixty feet road will continue till the service road of WEH. People can use this road to reach the highway from Akurli road and meanwhile in the second phase, the mall will hand over the DP road which will be connected to the highway through the Central Ordnance Depot.”
Shishir Shetty, founder of LRA, said, “The residents of Lokhandwala township have been demanding the 120 feet DP road for 12 years and we only got to know about the DP road passing from Growels Mall in December. We were in constant conversation with the mall as well as the BMC. MP Gopal Shetty has also been our constant support. Due to his involvement, Kandivali residents will get a road ready in the next fifteen days.”
The Free Press Journal contacted Lalit Talekar, assistant municipal commissioner, R-South ward, who said that they have written to the DP department to carry out the hand-over procedure of the recreational ground development plan (RGDP) road. “We have received letters from MP Gopal Shetty, LRA and other organisations about the issue. We have written to the DP department to take possession of RGDP. As per my knowledge the mall has already received the floor space index benefit for the RGDP plot but that will be cleared once the hand-over procedure starts.”
