No spirits of last year on skywalks this year

New Year revellers partied on the skywalk at Bandra East last year creating a ruckus and roughing up security guards posted there

Youngsters planning to repeat last year's party plan onu00a0 various skywalks in Mumbai this year, may have to consider taking their high spirits down a notch, or taking the party elsewhere.

Taking note of last year's chaos on the Bandra (East) skywalk, Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) has decided to beef up the number of security guards at various skywalks to ensure that revellers do not get out of hand.


MMRDA and police will work together closely at New Year's Eve to avoid any untowardly incident

Also, unruly and boisterous behaviour will be dealt with more strictly. MMRDA and the police will be coordinating closely to ensure no untoward incident occurs this time.

Last New Year's Eve, Bandra (E) skywalk was the ideal destination for youngsters partying and consuming alcohol, until they got sloshed, thereby forcing private security guards posted there to evict them.

According to the security guards, evicting them simply did not solve the situation, since they just kept coming back.

"We received several complaints from our security guards posted at various skywalks in the city last year, stating that youngsters who came to celebrate New Year's Eve were carrying liquor along with them.

Many were drunk and got into arguments and roughed up a few security guards, prompting us to bring in reinforcements this year.
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We will now have at least five extra security guards on each of our 32 skywalks that will remain open to pedestrians," said MMRDA Joint Project Director Dilip Kawatkar.

Last year around 18 skywalks were open, but this year MMRDA boasts 32 skywalks, open to the public in and around the city, which include Bandra (E and W), Santacruz (E and W), Vileparle (W), Andheri (E) Borivli (W) and Virar (E).

Apart from this, MMRDA has also decided to keep a strict vigil on the foot-over bridges (FOB) open for pedestrians on the Eastern and Western Express Highways.