'Ziddi' Lata Didi: No flyover means NO flyover!

Lata Mangeshkar. Pic/AFP

Nearly two decades ago, Lata Mangeshkar and her kin managed to put their foot down and stalled a significant flyover project of Maharashtra government in south Mumbai.

The proposed 4-km-long flyover would have cut through the narrow Pedder Road, linking the Haji Ali Junction with Girguam Chowpatty to decongest traffic in that area.

However, the flyover would have passed virtually above the home of Lata Didi at Prabhukunj at the Pedder Road corner.

Lata Didi, along with younger sibling Asha Bhosle expressed their displeasure to successive state governments on the project - which ultimately never took off - after it was conceived in 2000.

At one point, she even threatened to 'quit Mumbai' and settle in Pune or Kolhapur if the government of the day went ahead with the project.

All Chief Ministers since then didn't dare raise the issue with her ever, though many traffic-weary Mumbaikars did not take kindly to her adamance.

Finally, considering options, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government implemented the upcoming Mumbai Coastal Road Project in lieu of that flyover, but Lata Didi was not destined to see the completion of its first phase by end-2022.

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