By definition a park is a public area of land with grass, trees, and other amenities, where people go to relax and enjoy themselves.
To the common man, the park is a place where people come with their family, friends and loved ones, to relax, take a walk, play or workout.
Patwardhan Park is one such park! Over the past few decades, many generations have enjoyed their time at the park. Today, this park is under threat by the very authorities that manage it.
Per a tender released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) dated 29 October 2018, the BMC proposes to construct a 3 level parking structure directly below the park. This structure is expected to have a capacity for 560 cars and 221 bikes. A shopping plaza is also part of this proposal.
Activist Anandini Thakoor is concerned about the safety of the entry and exit of senior citizens and differently abled citizens, since there is no indication as to how the same would be addressed. Currently, the park is a major natural catchment area. However, she is worried that the project has no plans for rain water harvesting.
Zoru Bhathena, is an activist who has done extensive ground work on this matter, emphatically states that when there are unutilised parking spaces in the same area for more than 300 four wheelers, then why is BMC insisting on the underground parking space, below the park. He specifically pointed out that there is ample parking space in places such as – Taste of Punjab Mall, Starbucks Mall, KFC Mall, NM Medical Centre, Croma Mall, Suburbia/Shoppers Stop, and Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir and Sheila Raheja Auditorium. Sadly, the same is either lying unutilised or has been used for other commercial purposes. His question is – “Why is BMC not focussing on freeing up this existing unutilised parking space for the public?”
An active leader in a Bandra-Khar ALM 144 (Advanced Locality Management) – Aftab Siddique, points out that Linking Road, 32nd Road and 24th Road are already extremely congested with dense population of licenced stalls, high pedestrian (shopper’s) traffic, and undisciplined parking. This is worsened by the fact that all three roads are quite narrow and are already congested with heavy traffic flow throughout the day. She also points out that there is already a note from the traffic police department, which does not allow public parking in the area, considering the high traffic volume of vehicles and pedestrians, coupled with narrow roads.
From a common man’s point of view, here are some genuine concerns.
- Will the park retain its appeal as the ‘green’ park – to play, relax and workout?
- Will the park continue to retain all its green cover?
- Will we lose our natural rain catchment area for good?
- When there are existing unutilised parking spaces in the current area, why build new ones?
- Will this project make the area more congested – in terms of vehicular and pedestrian traffic?
- Will this project increase the already high noise and air pollution?
The bottom line is whether the authorities will heed these concerns and other concerns and resolve them!
Porus D. Tavadia
