Mumbai: Mayor gets gated residence, parking inside Byculla zoo

The bungalow renovation is expected to finish in five days, along with a new gate and enough parking space for the mayor's guests

The mayor is bound to have some very unusual neighbours at Byculla zoo, but most people will be able to relate to his policy for dealing with them - the less he sees or hears from them, the better. The BMC has erected a gate on the access road to the bungalow to provide privacy and security to the mayor, and will also install sound barriers to keep the zoo animals and mayor's guests from disturbing each other.

Late last month, the civic body put up the gate on a road inside the zoo premises leading up to the bungalow. Past the gate and towards the house, the entire stretch of road can be used as a parking lot for guests. The mayor's car will have its own parking shed.

Guards will also be posted at the gate to ensure that visitors to Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo don't wander into the mayoral residence. "The Mayor will have a lot of visitors and they will need a place to park their vehicles. Around 15-20 cars can park on the road, and the gate will prevent the zoo's visitors from sauntering into the Mayor's bungalow," said a civic official.

Meanwhile, the bungalow's renovation and repairs are nearly over. Work on the bungalow started around 20 days ago, and only finishing touches such as painting work and garden-scaping remain. The civic official said that major structural repair work - costing around R80 lakh - had been taken up just before additional municipal commissioner AL Jarhad had moved in back in 2017. The ground-floor carpet area of the zoo bungalow is 2,370 square feet, whereas the Shivaji Park bungalow being vacated by the mayor is 2,432 square feet.

The last time BMC had offered the Byculla bungalow to Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeswar in 2017, he had turned down the proposal, stating that possible noise pollution from their functions could disturb the zoo animals. Civic officials had then offered to install sound barriers.

They now plan to put these up before Mahadeshwar moves in. While civic officials claim that the bungalow will be ready in another five days, the mayor is expected to move out of his existing home before January 23, which marks the birth anniversary of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray.

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