mid-day ask the govt: Noisy Chinese food vendors, road and Holi mess...

Starting February 16 midday introduced a new initiative DEAR GOVERNMENTIn this your favourite newspaper will print your questions to BMC Police and State Government every Monday and will get answers on your behalf Be it roads water crime government policy whatever your query write to us at mailbagmiddaycom or tweet to us at midday and we will try and get responses to your problemsProblemsEncroached footpathThe Agar Bazar area near Sahakari Bandar Dadar is in the heart of the city and is infested with hawkers Chinese bhel dosa wala and others dominate the footpath with no place available for residents around the area to walk The noise level of constant banging of the iron vessel by the Chinese bhel wala is very disturbing It starts at 11 am and goes on till midnight We senior citizens have no rest Next are the flower ladies and their children who dirty the place with spit and leftover food etc We are regularly paying our tax and the most basic of civic amenities are in fact enjoyed by these hawkers We want our footpaths back Usha JayakumarHoli messThis is regarding the state of our locality of Yari Road near Mandir Masjid Versova Andheri West where remnants of the Holi burning ritual is lying unattended and creating a mess It is ironic that this condition has persisted for a full year without being repaired and again the ritual was performed at the same spotThe authority concerned shouldnrsquot allow such dangerous acts on roads because underground cables get damaged by the extreme heat of fire This negligence is also creating an unhygienic and unsightly environment causing inconvenience to residents Iqbal Gilani MansuriCoastal Road promenade issuesI am a 79yearold senior citizen who goes to the Coastal Road promenade for a morning walk every day It is so poorly constructed and tiles are very badly fixed and have already come loose in spots Because of this I tripped over three months back and injured my nose A few days later another person fell and injured her kneeI had started walking on cycle tracks but the police objected to this Also when you go down from the road to the public under pass No 12 to go to the promenade you have to climb down 3 or 4steps There is no supporting rod or railing to take the help of especially for senior citizens Even the public toilets here are very hard to reach without railings Can these issues be fixed Dr Sugandha KarapurkarEndless bridge workThe work on Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road Bridge was started many years back but it is still incomplete and the major work is pending mdash the installation of sound and vision barrier I would like to know the reason for not installing the sound amp vision barriers Also give us the date by which the JVLR bridge work will be completed and start functioning Mansoor Umer DarveshResponsesmidday contacted the authorities concerned who sent their responses to your woes We shall continue to hold officials accountable for the state of the cityCigarette shop nuisanceDipika AgarwalResponse Ravindra Salunkhe senior inspector of Bandra police station said ldquoWe are taking action against illegal pan shops We will check this paanbidi shop and will take action accordinglyrdquoChoked roadRohit MidhaResponse A traffic police official said ldquoWe are carrying out daily surveillance and taking action particularly against vehicles belonging to the company that is parking the cars on the road Echallans are issued on a daily basis whenever violations are found Most of the trucks heading to the company are their own vehicles and we will also be talking to the company officials to discuss better planning and management of vehicle movement At times we manually operate the signal near the BisleriGold Spot junction to ease traffic However ongoing drainage work by BMC under the Gokhale Bridge has affected the slip road causing traffic backflow and congestion This makes it difficult to clear vehicles even when the signal is manually controlled The work is now in its final stages We will continue taking action and will also follow up with BMC and the concerned company officialsrdquoExpressway nightmareSagar RResponse A MSRDC official said ldquoThere are several measures being implemented to address challenges on the Expressway 1 The ldquoMissing Linkrdquo Project The primary cause of congestion is the bottleneck at the Khandala Ghat section To solve this permanently MSRDC is fasttracking the MumbaiPune Expressway Missing Link Project This project will bypass the hairpin bends of the Ghat section 2 Enhanced Safety amp Monitoring ITMS Citizen safety is our highest priority To curb accidents and enforce discipline We have implemented the Intelligent Traffic Management System which uses hightech cameras and sensors to monitor speed violations lane cutting and illegal parking in realtime Appropriate traffic management measures are being implemented by Highway Police in coordination with MSRDC and IRB to reduce traffic congestion during peak traffic timerdquo