'Developer has constructed building on road,' alleges Goregaon resident

Under-construction Chandiwala Tower on the Oshiwara Garden Road

Construction of a building on the Oshiwara Garden Road has raised fear of displacement in the residents who have shops on the opposite side. One of them has alleged that the developer encroached a portion of land meant for road widening and that the MMRDA might now want to expand the road on the other side and ask them to vacate. The MMRDA has, however, refuted the allegations.

The shops on the opposite side of the road. Pics/Anurag Ahire

M Lotlikar, a Goregaon resident, has alleged that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) favoured the developer. In November 2019, he wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray stating, "As per the reply to my complaint given by MMRDA, I assume that the MMRDA has favoured a developer for construction of the building on the Oshiwara Garden Road without doing any proper survey. This has been done by flouting all the rules."

According to Lotlikar, a total of 500 metres of the road was supposed to be widened on the south side where the building is being constructed, however, widening was done for only 300 metres. And the remaining 200 metres land was encroached by the developer, he alleged. "The opposite side, where people have been living since the 1960-70s and have shops, might now be used for widening, threatening dislocation," Lotlikar said.

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Rush hour causes a bottleneck for traffic leading to jams on the road, and because it was not widened for 200 metres, the problem will persist, he said. Lotlikar claims he has been following up on the issue for the past three years, and the Urban Development department in 2017 in a reply to his complaint said that it was decided in 2015 to widen the road for 25 metres in order to prevent the bottleneck.

What MMRDA says
An MMRDA official said, "The demarcation plan for the plot of Ajit Glass Factory (M/s Chandiwala Enterprises Pvt Ltd) was prepared in 2012. Considering that the permissions were already issued to the Ajit Glass plot as per the said demarcation and the school reservation as earlier commitment, the road widening was proposed on the south side of the Oshiwara Garden Road and demarcation plan was accordingly prepared in 2015. Therefore, the construction work of M/s Chandiwala Enterprises is in accordance with the demarcation issued by the MMRDA and does not involve narrowing of road width."

"M/s Chandiwala Enterprises Pvt Ltd has also purchased a few land parcels on the south side of Oshiwara Garden Road that are part of the proposed road realignment/widening. The owner has indicated his willingness to hand over the said area for road widening. It is also learnt that the owner is in process of developing said land parcels under the SRA scheme whereby occupants of the structures located on the said land parcels would get compensation/benefit in the form of shops/tenements as per the prevailing norms of SRA scheme. Therefore, the question of dislocating occupants should not arise."

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