Bottleneck deep in trouble

The municipal corporators elected in the February 2012 elections claim to have spent more than 80 per cent of the funds allotted — Rs 60 lakh each of the corporator’s funds and Rs 40 lakh each of the committee fund for the term 2012-13. However,residents say not much has changed.

“There has been no improvement. In fact,the problems have become worse,” said 24-year-old Bhavishya Rao,who lives in Prabhadevi and works at Tata Housing in Lower Parel.

“Parking is a big problem here. A couple of times,my friends had come over and due to the lack of any designated parking space,had parked on the road. Their cars were towed away. This is a major reason why I have not bought a car for myself,” Rao said.

Years ago,the G-South ward,spread across an area of 10 sq km,housed several mills across Senapati Bapat Marg,Ganpatrao Kadam Road and N M Joshi Marg. It also had the highest amount of mill land in the city. While most of these mills have been already redeveloped into commercial complexes,construction is under way in some others.

Around eight commercial complexes have come up on Tulsi Pipe Road. Most of the office goers in this area avail public transport despite owning cars. The primary reason,they cite is that parking in these complexes is expensive and it is impossible to park on the road. Some offices have rosters mentioning which day of the week an employee can bring her/ his car to office as there is limited parking space in these swanky commercial complexes.

A part of the second phase of the monorail from Wadala to Jacob Circle passes through the G- south ward winding over the narrow roads of this ward. Although it is believed that the project will prove to be beneficial in the long run,residents are inconvenienced daily as the construction started nearly four years ago.

“The construction has led to broken utility lines,which are not repaired on time. Also,it has resulted in narrower roads,which leads to traffic jams,” said Sunil Shinde,a former corporator in the ward.

Residents complain that since the Currey Road bridge has been shut for the monorail construction for 10 months now,the load shifts to the cramped Elphinstone road bridge creating a bottleneck for officegoers to the Lower Parel business belt. The Saat Rasta junction,Worli junction and Haji Ali junction are the other major traffic bottlenecks in this ward.

With the mushrooming of skyscrapers and defunct mills being turned to plush commercial complexes,corporators say there is a pressure on the supply of drinking water and drainage system. The strain on the drainage system leads to water-logging at several low-lying areas in the ward such as Currey Road and NM Joshi Marg.

BMC has started revamping Love Grove pumping station and the Cleveland pumping station to mitigate flooding in the area,as part of the Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drains project,which also involves revamping drainage lines.

Corporators say besides the flurry of redevelopment,illegal construction in the area is putting further pressure on the existing infrastructure.

“Illegal construction in the Worli fishing village is rampant. The drainage system,which is at least 40 years old,cannot take the load,” said Shiv Sena corporator Hemangi Worlikar.

The G-South ward has women heading seven out of its nine councillor wards. While four of the corporators are from the Shiv Sena,three are from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and two from the Nationalist Congress Party.