Mumbai Metro Rail 3 project: Protesting Kalbadevi, Girgaum residents blacken barriers at site

Shopkeepers in the area are also troubled by the upcoming displacement. Sixty-year-old Munira has a stationery shop right next to the construction area. “This shop has been around for over 50 years. Now if the government removes me from here I will lose my business. Though I have not heard from the authorities yet, people say we will be moved to the suburbs. At this age I cannot travel so much and will just have to close my shop,” she says.
Another shopkeeper who did not want to be named said he was not against the project or rehabilitation. His only issue is lack of communication. “We just want the authorities to come and speak to us about what they plan to do for us,” he said.

While accepting the inevitability of displacement, Sudhar Khedekar, who runs an 80-year-old firecrackers shop close by, said he wants officials to first provide rehabilitation and then begin work. “Have the people who were displaced by Metro’s Line 1 been provided good rehabilitation yet,” he asked, adding that there was no need for a Metro station there as the area was well-connected by suburban local trains.

“Kalbadevi Metro station will only be a three-minute walk from the Marine Drive railway station and Girgaum four minutes from Charni Road. There is no need for a Metro station here. It is only for the rich and they do not care if the poor suffer,” he said.

The Shiv Sena has supported the locals’ protest and said it may escalate in the coming days. “People here are angry with the MMRC as they have never consulted them about their rehabilitation. We have repeatedly asked them to come forward for a discussion with us. However, now they have begun work and still not told us where they will provide these people rehabilitation,” said Pandurang Sakpal, a Shiv Sena leader from South Mumbai and convener of Kalbadevi-Girgaum Rahivashi Bachao Kruti Samiti.

Sakpal said more than 287 families will be affected. “If they still do not come forward for a discussion the protests are only going to intensify,” he said.

Ashwini Bhide, managing director of MMRC, was not available for comments.