The BMC has extended the deadline for tenders to build an underground parking at Patwardhan Park for the 12th time after the Bombay HC moved the hearing for a PIL on the subject to April 17. The new deadline is April 29. The last date was February 18, which was pushed forward from January 29. “The PIL was mentioned on the board of the HC a few times,” said a petitioner, “but didn’t reach a hearing.
The last date was February 28, 2024; now the next date is April 17. “There isn’t a limit on the extensions of the hearing, or the time period for the tender,” a civic official said, “The BMC can extend it till it gets a good response.” The matter of the three-level underground parking lot proposed by the BMC under the Rao Saheb Patwardhan Udyan at Khar West has been in a flux for nearly a year. On March 9, 2023, the BMC floated a tender for the parking facility estimated to cost Rs 75 crore.
However, residents objected to it and a meeting was held at BMC’s H West ward office on April 5, 2023, to hear them out. Despite this, the tender was not scrapped, even though the civic body had bowed to similar public demands in the case of a parking lot under Juhu’s Pushpa Narsee Park. Andheri MLA Amit Satam backed the citizen demand for Pushpa Narsee Park, whereas Bandra MLA Ashish Shelar has not met with Khar residents.
The crux of the opposition by citizens is that the parking lot will compromise an open space. “The corporation works for the citizens of Mumbai,” said Zoru Bathena, an activist and litigant. “We have already shown that there is ample space for parking in the vicinity that can be improved by planning. Why don’t they just scrap the tender like with Pushpa Narsee Park?”
Two architects—Samarth Das and Alan Abraham—are co-petitioners who sought that BMC permanently restrain itself from constructing a parking lot or a project similar in nature at the park. They argue that the civic body’s decision was arbitrary as no alternatives had been considered and it could lead to the loss of a natural sponge that protects surrounding flood-prone regions up to SV Road and prevents large-scale urban flooding.
Rs 75 cr
Estimated cost of parking facility as per BMC tender
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