Tata Blocks garden row: SV Road residents to hit the streets on Saturday

Metro 2B construction work continues in front of the Bai Hirabai Tata Memorial Trust, Tata Blocks, in Bandra West. Pic/Satej Shinde

Residents of SV Road and Tata Blocks and members of Varde Marg Residents Association are organising a protest rally on Saturday, May 27, over their fear of losing the only green space in the vicinity to the Metro 2B corridor. The residents are disappointed by MMRDA's decision not to relocate the station, citing difficulties and costs associated with such a move.

Their concern arises from the fact that the Sadhu Vaswani Garden, located on Bandra's SV Road, is set to shrink by approximately 290 sq metres. This reduction is necessary to accommodate the entry and exit points of the Metro 2B corridor's National College station, as clarified by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) in their recent response to mid-day.

In response to this development, the residents have organised a protest rally at Sadhu Vaswani Garden on Saturday at 6 pm. They argue that the takeover of the garden by MMRDA will result in the removal of numerous trees, some of which are over a century old and belong to rare species.

Also Read: Mumbai: Bandra garden to lose 290 sq mt for Metro station

Metro 2B construction work continues in front of the Bai Hirabai Tata Memorial Trust, Tata Blocks, in Bandra West. Pic/Satej Shinde

The residents have expressed their discontentment with the handling of the situation by MMRDA in a statement they released, accusing the authority of discreetly relocating the station without informing the public. They believe this prevented the citizens of Bandra from raising valid objections and suggestions. The residents also criticised MLA Advocate Ashish Shelar of the BJP, who they claim had initially promised complete support to the citizens of Bandra in this matter.

"At the last meeting held at the Vaswani Garden, he thumped his chest and emphatically assured the citizens of his constituency at the gathering that their worries were over as the Metro station would not be constructed outside Tata Blocks, at the very busy junction of SV Road, Linking Road, and Turner Road. In fact, Shelar even thanked the citizens for bringing MMRDA's wrongdoings to his attention. Further, Shelar also approached Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who too assured to resolve the matter with MMRDA."

According to the residents, the original plan for the Metro 2B corridor included two stations in Bandra West: "Bandra" near the Lucky restaurant signal, and "National College" near Jivan Kiran Bungalow opposite Western Railway Employees Colony. However, the residents claim that the "National College" station has been shifted backward towards the opposite Tata Blocks Parsi Colony, starting from Grace Galaxy Hotel and extending up to the Maruti Auto Vista showroom on S V Road in Bandra.

The residents emphasise that elected representatives from all political parties, including the ruling party and the opposition, as well as MMRDA authorities, should not underestimate the concerns of law-abiding citizens. They remind these representatives that they were elected to serve the best interests of the citizens they represent and that authoritarian and autocratic behaviour will not be tolerated. The citizens have used social media platforms to urge people to join their protest in large numbers.