The BMC has finally agreed to a long-standing demand of Worli fishermen—increasing the span between two pillars of the Coastal Road at Cleveland Bunder. After a joint committee comprising experts from Goa’s National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and representatives of fisherfolk was set up in October to address the concern, the fishermen association recently received a letter from the BMC that one of the pillars will not be erected to increase the span from 60 to 120 metres. Though the demand was to increase the span to 200 metres, the fishermen have agreed to compromise. Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide confirmed the development. 

On October 2, the protesters had met with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at his official residence Varsha over the demand. “The CM immediately formed a committee of members of the NIO; experts such as Dr Surendra Thakurdesai, head of the geography department of Ratnagiri’s Gogate-Jogalekar College; Dilip Bhatkar, engineer and director of Marine Syndicate Pvt Ltd; and fishermen representatives, including Royal Patil and I along with others. There were no representatives from the BMC, but the civic body was playing a supporting role. The committee submitted its report and we received a letter from a Coastal Road engineer that pillar number 8 will be removed. So there will be a distance of 120 metres between pillars 7 and 9,” said Nitesh Patil, president of the Worli Koliwada Nakhwa Matsya Vyavsay Sahakari Society.