A seventy-year-old building housing the popular Mamagoto restaurant at Bandra’s Hill Road in Mumbai, was demolished on Friday for restoring the original width of the road to ease the vehicular traffic.
According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the official width of the bustling Hill Road is 27m, but due the location of the building, it was recued to 13m. The building, which was situated right along the road was among the key factors responsible for traffic chaos on the stretch.
“The structure had 12 commercial and two residential structures, all of which have been provided an alternative. The final notice was given to them on June 15, and August 9 was fixed as the date for demolition. Once the debris is removed from the site and the road is widened, it will make a lot of difference to traffic movement on the road,” Times of India quoted Assistant municipal commissioner Vinayak Vispute as saying.
Another civic body official informed that the affected people have been rehabilitated-some in Bandra and a few others in Kandivali suburb.
Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar said the widening of Hill Road was among the priority tasks for him as the traffic congestion was a big problem in the region.
“Traffic congestion in the area had to be eased, for which we knew that we had to extend the road to its full width. We did it very systematically over the past few years, removing bottlenecks at various spots on the road. This was one of the last bottlenecks, which we finally managed to achieve following the due process,” the national daily quoted the MLA.
Chairperson of Bandra Reclamation Area Volunteers Organisation, welcomed the civic body move and claimed that those affected have been rightfully rehabilitated.
“The area has a hospital (Holy Family Hospital), schools and churches. The congestion because of this bottleneck would frequently slow down traffic,” she said.
Despite a pay-and-park facility along Hill Road, motorists are still parking on the road, which slows down the traffic.
Lillian Paes, another resident and trustee of NGO Mumbai Citizen Forum, said during peak hours and on the weekends, the area often becomes choatic, leaving cars crawling. “It’s good that the authorities have acted to ease traffic chaos.”
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