One of the fastest growing suburbs, Andheri (East) is besieged with all the problems urbanisation brings along - traffic snarls, choked or overflowing gutters, uneven roads and water scarcity.Till five years back, hearing Andheri (E), house hunters conjured up images of a downmarket residential area. Over the years, realisation has dawned upon them - what with its proximity to the airport and well-connected routes to all the other western suburbs. And the result is highrises, high real estate prices and, of course, high society. And all this, instead of acting as a deterrent, has encouraged hand-in-glove existence of residential complexes and industries.Consequence? On the way from the station to the interiors, pollution increases, the highest when you reach Marol which is the hub of industrialisation. But it almost gets nullified by the fortunate presence of Andheri's green tracts and forests of Goregaon.Back to the railway station, while the hawkers menace here was taken care of by Mayor NanduSatam's drive it has not spared the suburb's interiors. With space being a constraint, all open spaces, including the pavements of roads which are as wide or narrow as ever, are either being encroached upon or taken over by hawkers.Well, commercialisation is the name of the game. And with it comes vehicular traffic and the resultant pollution and congestion.Commuters complain that they don't have enough space to stand on the bus stops, even those outside the station. During peak hours, the situation is even worse. But the large number of buses plying is a definite respite.Says P R Gandhi, a resident of one of the apartments blocks on Nagardas Road, one of the main roads leading to the suburb: "The hawkers menace and bad roads are two main problems we have to cope with. For instance, the much travelled Nagardas Road is perpetually in bad shape. Apart from the BMC, which does not bother to maintain it, digging by utility agencies have made matters worse." According to Gandhi, every two or three monthsnew repairwork starts, even while the earlier one isn't over yet.During the monsoons, the road gets flooded which, combined with heavy vehicular traffic, makes it practically impossible walking down the stretch. "The increase in the number of vehicles has also affected Andheri, with private vehicles being parked on both the sides of many a road all through the day and the traffic department doing little to ease the problems of the pedestrians," rues Gandhi.Another major problem faced by pedestrians is the absence of pavements. Almost all the residential lanes have either been occupied by hawkers or encroached upon by shop-keepers. Just outside the station, the otherwise hawker-free pavements have been occupied by around 50 cobblers, perhaps the largest number of them doing business together.Hawkers and zunkha bhakar stalls that have also made life difficult for pedestrians on the pavements right from Western Express Highway junction through J B Nagar, Marol Pipeline to Saki Naka. EvenSher-e-Punjab colony, next to the Western Express Highway, is a pedestrian's nightmare. Every inch of space in this residential area, known for good food joints, has been occupied by stalls many of which are illegal.A member of the Citizens Forum for Andheri also complains about the condition of roads in and around Sher-e-Punjab. "Manholes near the colony depot are missing for over a year now, As a result, many accidents have taken place in the recent past," he says. Which brings us back to the ubiquitous problem of bad roads and traffic congestion and mismanagement to which civic bodies have long been turning a blind eye.One of these problem nodes is the busy intersection of Marol Pipeline. There are no zebra crossings or signals to regulate the traffic flow here and as a result people have to cross this accident-prone road at the cost of their lives - at least five to six accidents take place here every year. To add to this problem, the drain at Marol Naka overflows all through the year and repeatedcomplaints to the ward office has been of little help.Even the residents of Andheri-Kurla Road complain that the residential areas around face the problems of traffic, roads, sanitation and encroachment and laments that the local corporators as well as the MLA's have been of no help. Parking of vehicles on the Andheri-Kurla Road, arterial connection between east and west Andheri and a commercial centre due to its proximity to the airport, is hell for motorists and pedestrians alike.Despite all these problems, the suburb is a bird-watcher's delight. At least 15 varieties of birds have been traced here - sun-birds, fulchoosi, red-vented bulbul, red-headed barbets, golden oreals and tailor birds are a few to name of. Besides Andheri also has the largest number of co-operative housing societies, with each having over 1,000 members. And they are so well-maintained that the Charity Commissioner has granted them the A-rating. Ray of hope, do we hear?
