Postcard from a Mumbai Village: Kole Kalyan, a place that lost ground to slums, airport

One resident, Keon Kirik Carvalho, says, “The charm of the village is lost. Urbanisation is not bad, but the village has been shrunk by a slum, the BKC and the airport. We no longer have place for parking or playgrounds. Earlier, children would play in the ground, but slums have encroached that.”

The villagers all complain of shortage of parking space. Water supply, encroachment by slums and new buildings sprouting up are the other common grievances.

Older villagers claim the original residents of Kole Kalyan were converted to Christianity by the Portuguese and then given jobs in the East India company.

Sarpanch Reuben D Dias says, “The civic body refuses us permission to re-construct our houses. There is also the issue of road height — in the rainy season, we face problems because the rising road level means water enters our houses.”

According to Dias, as villagers gave their land to the government for the development of the airport, the area needed better planning, taking into account the need for open spaces, play spaces and parking.

“As locals, our numbers might not be good enough as a base for vote bank politics, but politicians in their individual capacity have exploited us, thereby creating a divide. Demands of formal recognition of our community fall on deaf ears, even though we have a unique dialect and an established tradition,” said Godwin Crasto, another villager.