Aaditya Thackeray shares his vision for Mumbai’s future and his re-election plan

While politicians increasingly speak about growing vehicular indiscipline and unregulated traffic former guardian minister for Mumbai suburbs and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray in a candid interview said among other things that if reelected he would improve BEST services station at least one police officer on every street in his constituency to increase awareness of traffic rules and reduce congestionThe Thackeray scion laid out his plans to make the city more liveablemdashfrom implementing an integrated traffic management plan to revamping the housing situation to boosting healthcare to increasing the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply amp Transport BEST fleet to improving pedestrian connectivity to saving open spaces and the environmentmdashin a freewheeling interview with midday ExcerptsWorli MLA Aaditya Thackeray at his residence Matoshree on Friday PicsRane AshishYou are contesting from Worli for the second time this time in a triangular fight Twotime MP and Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora is contesting against you An MNS candidate too is in the fray How do you view this fightItrsquos not just a triangular fight It would be unfair for us to not count the other candidates too There are many more candidates apart from us I think equal respect and weightage have to be given to everyone At the end of the day wersquore all only candidates who are looking to serve people and win their votes My only issue is if someone is dedicated to contesting they should step away from any cushioning like a Rajya Sabha seat Resign from the Rajya Sabha seat and then enter the fray If you have cushioning then it seems like yoursquore here just to pass the timePeople in the Mahayuti parties are saying Aaditya Thackeray was not active in his constituencyIf that was the case they wouldnt have had to send in so many people and have so many rallies Let them say whatever people know what Ive done there for the past five years when we were in government When we were out of government projects like BDD which were stuck for 25 years were delivered by us So many slum rehabilitation schemes that were stuck for 1718 years have now taken off Multiple chawls that want to go for selfredevelopment or redevelopment are being actively assisted by us The Eknath Shinde government wants to convert the Worli Koliwada into a cluster or a slum which we will prevent I think everyone knows the work weve been doing Even in highrise buildings everyone is in direct touch with us So we are within the people and amongst the people no matter what the opposition saysAaditya Thackeray Shiv Sena UBT candidateAs the MLA from that constituency what were the key issues you will help solve once you get electedSee I went into the constituency where we already had a Sena MLA we now also have a Sena MP and corporators I went in because it is also a microcosm of India It is the idea of India Every religion every caste every creed every person from all across the country whoever comes with a dream a hope for himself or herself wanting a job wanting to start a business comes and settles largely in that area especially Worli See the kind of work we have done here in the past five yearsmdashbe it with the footpaths open spaces coordination weve had amongst every type of housing you know be it a slum be it a Koliwada be it a chawl be it a highrise society It is a rapidly evolving constituency and looking forward I have more in storeWhat are the two issues you were successfully able to solve for Worli in the last five years and what are the two you couldnrsquotThe two issues are pedestrian connectivity across Worli and minor spaces that were left out or in the dark that were not illuminated We saw spaces that had become dump yards We tried to convert those into active public spaces Housing has been a major major issue for us As I said a lot of our housing is at least 100 years old In terms of the older buildings they are undergoing revamp so that is where we are actively assisting them Then BDD chawl is a huge project backed by our government initiated 25 years ago and going back and forth But it was started in our term and now youll see one tower which is almost ready and the handover will be done in the next two three months A lot of stuck SRA Slum Rehabilitation Authority projects have started off In terms of going forward we want two things one is an integrated traffic management plan and this is something we couldnt really finish because the WorliSewri connector which should have been finished by this government is only 57 per cent complete When our government was toppled it was 48 per cent complete Two when were looking at traffic management plans you need to take the local shopkeepers house owner and stakeholders into confidence because they cannot be disrupted because of such management plans I would definitely like to have active traffic management personneltraffic police on all roads across Mumbai Today the fear of traffic police has eroded The second thing we are actively working on is housing We are also looking at actively creating a medical concierge for senior citizens where a GP general practitioner will be connected to every household and will be available via WhatsAppAaditya ThackerayWill this be unique to Worli or do you plan to expand itThis is for all of Mumbai of course Look at the healthcare services today in Maharashtra the way they have crumbled look at our medical colleges run by BMC or the government Today doctors resident doctors and nurses are giving their all Still theyrsquore not being supported by the government How did our medical infra crumble so fast Only because of an incapable CM like Eknath ShindeThere are so many infrastructure projects coming up in Mumbai What is your vision for MumbaiSimple Speak to Mumbai about Mumbai Because primarily today if you see all the ALMs and citizen groups who is hearing their voice Nobody Who are hearing the urban planners and architects from the city or Pune Nashik Thane Nagpur Solar Kolapur Nobody The government is just bringing its favourite contractors and implementing a contract Left right centre They are taking money out of it with advanced funds but not really finishing any projectsLook at BEST which is the backbone of Mumbairsquos economic progress When we were in power we were looking increasing the fleet to 10000 electric buses by 2027 without changing the fare structure What has Eknath Shindersquos government done Last year it increased fares and now BEST buses have reduced from 3500 to 2500 Even though the ridership of BEST is 33 to 35 lakhmdashthe undertaking moves an entire European country daily it lacks adequate funds The Delisle Road bridge is delayed because of a scam related to gravelThis Eknath ShindeBJP government only believes in changing contractors and of course cost escalation so they benefit but nowhere do they look at how to help the peopleWhat we are looking at is apart from bigger projects how do we go into the lanes and bylanes of any city be it Mumbai Pune Thane anywhere You need walkability pedestrian pathways and connectivity through gardens and open spaces What about pet parks What about safe schools The Safe School project has been shut down by Eknath Shinde Why Its aim was to ensure the basic safety of boys and girlsYou mentioned open spaces and you are a big fan of football but there are few grounds to play the sportWe need to open up our open spaces In our time we prevented mud playgrounds from being converted into artificial ones We also prevented anyone from taking over open spaces Yes there will be rare instances where someone has encroached on a ground but we need to actively look at it What I was also doing as a personal effort was break the walls of gardens and open spaces maybe create grills But you need to be able to see through that there is an open space The reason why we feel therersquos a dearth of open spaces in a city today is because there are walls You canrsquot have an open space like a jail You cant have an open space walled upWe need to prevent further encroachment or construction on open spaces because you canrsquot create another space We had police patrolling back then and watchmen from the BMC would protect these public spaces Wersquoll have to start actually enforcing antiencroachment drives in open spacesThe Mumbai Climate Action Plan was one of your pet projects Where are we now on it according to youIn this government itrsquos in the cold storage I donrsquot think the goals that were set by our MVA government were too ambitious You can reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and that is possible for Mumbai Many other cities like Pune Solapur and Nashik are going for a climate action plan Unfortunately this government is not keen on environmental discussion at all For example before preaching to you to buy an EV car the government has to move towards an EV transition The BEST fleet or any other one has to move towards an electric vehicle transition and that is what we were doing For the past two years in almost every lane you will find that garbage dumps are not being cleaned for days because there is no answerability as there is no elected officialrepresentative in the BMCIf you come to power what will you implementThe first thing that we will do when we come to power is take all the cities due for local body elections and urban local bodies to the polls Whichever political party wins you have to have elections The people must have a voice So many municipal corporations are due for electionsAre you in favour of a 24hour MumbaiMumbai is a city that never sleeps or stops One is talking about having an International Financial Centre many sectors and service industries work 247 Eateries cafeacutes gyms spas theatres and shops should be open round the clock at least in nonresidential areasWhat is one lesson from your late grandfather Balasaheb Thackeray that is helping you now in this climate of turbulenceBalasaheb was crystal clear in his thoughts He always used to say if one believes what he is doing is right and doing it for the people there is nothing to fear Just do it Another thing I learned is to keep evolving and voicing peoplersquos issues His ideology was actually very pragmaticYour party is fielding a candidate in Mahim against your cousin Amit Thackeray of MNShellipThis is not a family battle In terms of courtesy being extended for the past 20 years none of our family members has commented on others This despite the other side speaking negatively about us in the public domainmdashright from the 2014 election where the food served to my grandfather was mentioned in a public address We have not been brought up to speak so crassly This is the basic and biggest courtesy that we have offeredDo you think if it had been BJP leaders like Nitin Gadkari the Shiv SenaBJP alliance would have never come to an endThe pre and post2014 BJP are different parties The BJP has changed completely after 2014 Can anyone tell me who are the top five faces of the Maharashtra BJP Where are BJP leaders like Vinod Tawde Prakash Mehta Gopal Shetty Poonam Tai Mahajan and Pankaja Tai Munde Original BJP karykartas are nowhere it is those who have come from outside who have gained importanceEvery party is in a hurry to announce sops including MNS which has announced more perks than the Mahayuti Where will the money come fromA BJP leader told me that the current government had budgeted schemes for three months and has no backup plan The current government plans to discontinue many sops as they have no backup plan to continue funding these schemes But the MVA has a plan that is sustainable for the next five yearsWhy oppose Adani and big infra projectsWe are here to serve people and not work for the interests of Adani or contractors or BJPrsquos buildersAre you mentoring your younger brother Tejas who is travelling with Uddhav Thackeray for election rallies and campaignsNot at all In fact I try to learn from him about how to find out if anyone is venomous or notWhat is the message that you want to give to Sena UBT workers and votersThis is not a message for anyone in particular But the way Maharashtra is being looted to favour Gujarat it is a battle for the pride of Maharashtra89248Votes garnered by Aaditya Thackeray in 2019lsquoMetro 3 has so far ferried as many passengers as 23 BEST buses do in a monthrsquoThe Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation on Thursday posted on X ldquoAqua Line 1st month 633209 passengers Mumbaikars chose MetroLine3 for daily commute reduced traffic congestion amp positively contributed to the environmentrdquoResponding to this Mumbaibased activist Zoru Bhathena tweeted ldquoOne single BEST Bus transports about 900 people every single day 23 BEST buses transport about 64 lakh passengers every single month Mumbai Metro 3 Phase1 transported about 633 lakh passengers in its first month Metro 3 Phase 1 Month 1 carried as many people as 23 BEST buses didrdquoReferencing the tweet Thackeray said ldquoIf you go by global standards the best public transport is in London They have rail underground metro buses cabs and Ola and Uber If you go by the ratio of the population thatrsquos going to increase in Mumbai we will need to increase the BEST fleet to 10000 electric buses Only then will public transport be used by people of all socioeconomic strata because it will be more comfortable and affordable 900 electric buses give us the possibility to actually increase our capacity whenever we want tordquo