Mumbai: The densely populated and biggest ward under the BMC jurisdiction P-North has finally split into two. After a long wait of six years, the new P-East ward office located in a building near Kundanlal Saigal theatre at Ram Leela ground in Malad East will be opened to the public this week. Currently, Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of P-North ward, will also have responsibility of the new ward.
The P-North ward is divided into the Malad (East) and Malad (West) areas with 18 civic wards under it.
Challenges faced by the BMC
The length and population of the ward makes it challenging for the BMC officials to provide civic facilities. Since P-North ward office is located at Malad (West), the citizens residing in Appa Pada, Ambedkar Nagar, Kranti Nagar and Santosh Nagar had to travel 5-6 km to reach the office. So, the local residents and representatives have put forward a demand in 2017 to split the ward. The eastern side of the ward has the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and it extends to the Arabian Sea on the west side. Appa Pada and Kranti Nagar areas are on the north side of the ward and the Chincholi Bandar area is at the south end of the ward. The population of the ward stands at 9.43 lakh and it covers an area of 46.67 sq mts.
The civic authority announced division of the ward in 2021-22 and the proposal was approved in January 2022, with a provision of Rs5 crore for the construction of the new office building.
At present 16 civic administrative wards do not have assistant municipal commissioner (AMC). Of these, 5 posts are vacant while 11 others are being run by executive engineers. The BMC had requested MPSC for the recruitment for vacant posts in 2019. The final list of successful candidates will be published this month, said a senior civic official.
