The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials on Wednesday held a consultation meeting with the residents of Manori in Malad to explain the details of the upcoming Marve-Manori flyover. To improve connectivity, the civic body plans to connect Marve with Manori through a flyover. This project is part of a six missing links flyover project in the western suburbs by BMC.
The project, however, received objections and saw protests from the local fishermen over concerns that these projects would damage local ecology and traditional livelihoods of farmers, fishers and toddy tappers. Godfrey Pimenta of the Watchdog Foundation, who attended the meeting with local fishermen, said Dharavi Beth (Island) is where the last untouched Gathons of the city exist.
Pimenta said there was nearly unanimous opposition to the proposed bridge, barring one fisherman. The impact of the proposed bridge, Ro-Ro Jetty, desalination plant was discussed in detail. “The four-lane bridge will destroy the tranquillity of the Dharavi Beth, entail demolition of houses in Gaothans of Manori, Kulvem and Gorai since there is currently a single-lane road,” Pimenta said.
Villages of these areas also lack basic civic amenities like hospitals, schools, drinking water supply and good motorable roads. “Instead of providing basic amenities first, BMC wants to build bridges here, which will destroy this island,” he added. Vishwas Shankarwar, deputy municipal commissioner, BMC, held a meeting with citizens along with BMC officials officials. “We held a consultation meeting with the stakeholders. There is a mix of opinions. Some oppose it, while some are okay. In the meeting, we explained the project and circulated a suggestions /objections form. All these responses will be taken up with the higher authorities, and we will put it up with MCZMA too.”
The BMC has planned six major bridges in the western suburbs to ease pressure on SV Road, Link Road and the Western Express Highway. Currently, commuters travelling to Madh, Marve, or Malwani from Borivali or Andheri take either the Link Road or SV Road up to Evershine Nagar and turn onto the Malad-Marve Road. The bridges will reduce the distance between Oshiwara and Madh by approximately one hour during peak travel time.
“We object to the BMC’s plan for this bridge,” Savio Ferreira, a local farmer from Manori, said. “There are fishermen and farmers here, who will lose their land when this bridge is built. People will lose their livelihood. They could have either chosen Ro-Ro or bridge, so first they said Ro-Ro, started the work on Ro-Ro, and now they have come up with a bridge plan also.” The Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) in 2022 had deferred coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) clearances for a network of five of these six vehicular bridges proposed by the BMC and asked the municipal corporation to explore alternative alignments for them to reduce their impact on mangroves.
In its justification note, BMC to the forest department said in 2021 that the bridge at Marve-Manori will be the best way of connectivity as currently if one needs to go to Manori and nearby places from Marve or any part of western suburbs, one needs to use western express highway till Mira Road and then Bhayander-Gorai and reach Manori. This journey counts at 29 km, and in peak traffic, it can take almost 2 hours to reach.