Mumbai Metro 2B: S V Road residents protest elevated Metro, demand underground line

Students gathered at the protest site with banners and slogans saying “Say No to Metro. Stop Elevated Metro”. The police pegged the number of protesters at around 1,500. Leading the protest, 87-year-old Anandini Thakur, the managing trustee of Khar Residents’ Association, said: “We have been trying to present our demands before Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis but he refuses to give us time.”

“He has time to sit for three hours in Utsav (an annual Mumbai Police event) but he cannot give me 15 minutes to present our demands. They have completely turned a deaf ear to our issues.”

Social activist and filmmaker Ashoke Pandit said: “Why has he (CM) sanctioned underground metro in South Mumbai? Is it because he lives there?”

Thakur now plans to organise a rally to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and file a Public Interest Litigation in this matter. Dilip Kawathkar, MMRDA spokesperson, said: “If we are to execute the metro corridor underground, it will increase the project cost by at least three times the proposed amount.”