Senior citizens from across Mumbai have written in about footpaths taken over by hawkers, tiles coming off the Coastal Road promenade, endless bridge work on JVLR and mess on roads not cleared for an entire year
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Starting February 16, mid-day introduced a new initiative: DEAR GOVERNMENT.
In 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 mailbag@mid-day.com or tweet to us at @mid-day and we will try and get responses to your problems.
Problems
Encroached footpath
The 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 Jayakumar
Holi mess
This 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 spot.
The authority concerned shouldn’t 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 Mansuri
Coastal Road promenade issues
I am a 79-year-old 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 knee.
I 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 Karapurkar
Endless bridge work
The work on Jogeshwari Vikhroli Link Road (Bridge) was started many years back, but it is still incomplete, and the major work is pending — the installation of sound and vision barrier. I would like to know the reason for not installing the sound & vision barriers. Also, give us the date by which the JVLR bridge work will be completed and start functioning.
- Mansoor Umer Darvesh
Responses
mid-day contacted the authorities concerned who sent their responses to your woes. We shall continue to hold officials accountable for the state of the city
Cigarette shop nuisance
Dipika Agarwal
Response: Ravindra Salunkhe, senior inspector of Bandra police station, said, “We are taking action against illegal pan shops. We will check this paan-bidi shop and will take action accordingly.”
Choked road
Rohit Midha
Response: A traffic police official said, “We are carrying out daily surveillance and taking action, particularly against vehicles belonging to the company that is parking the cars on the road. E-challans 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 Bisleri/Gold 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 officials.”
Expressway nightmare
Sagar R
Response: A MSRDC official said, “There are several measures being implemented to address challenges on the Expressway. 1. The “Missing Link” Project. The primary cause of congestion is the bottleneck at the Khandala Ghat section. To solve this permanently, MSRDC is fast-tracking the Mumbai-Pune Expressway Missing Link Project. This project will bypass the hairpin bends of the Ghat section. 2. Enhanced Safety & Monitoring (ITMS) Citizen safety is our highest priority. To curb accidents and enforce discipline: We have implemented the Intelligent Traffic Management System, which uses high-tech cameras and sensors to monitor speed violations, lane cutting, and illegal parking in real-time. Appropriate traffic management measures are being implemented by Highway Police in coordination with MSRDC and IRB to reduce traffic congestion during peak traffic time.”
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