BMC tweaks underground parking plan

People exercise at Patwardhan Park at Bandra

The BMC has officially changed the plan of the underground car parking in a portion of the Patwardhan Park in Bandra West, and even postponed the bidding date by another month. Activists have, however, alleged that though the BMC mentioned that it has changed the plan, it is merely an eyewash.

The BMC has published the pre-bid meeting minutes, extension to bidding and a change in the plan of the underground multilevel electromechanical car parking system on its website. The BMC mentioned in its pre-bid meeting minutes that someone raised the query about whether the three levels of underground parking is contrary to the provision of DCPR 53 (development control and promotion regulation) that allows only one or two levels. BMC's traffic department remarked that the proposed construction will be two basement floors under the ground level with the capacity for parking 190 cars.

The BMC had floated a tender to construct the underground parking at Patwardhan Park in Bandra West. File pic/Pradeep Dhivar

The BMC had asked the designers to accommodate a ramp from the ground floor to basement and so the number of car spaces was reduced from 228 to 190. Accordingly Structwel Designers and Consultants Pvt Ltd mentioned this in its letter to the BMC. The letter also shows the new drawings with two level parking as per the DCPR rules.

‘Not right'

But activists alleged that this is just an eyewash. "The BMC wants to fool the public that the tender has now been redesigned for two levels, but its own revised drawing shows three levels with 60 cars in level 1, 65 cars in level 2 and a level 3, making a total of 190 cars. Even their revised drawing clearly shows three levels," said Zoru Bhathena, activist and one of the petitioners who filed a petition against the BMC's proposed underground construction in an open space.

However, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ulhas Mahale insisted there will be two levels. "It is just an EPC (engineering procurement and construction) drawing for illustration and the final drawing will be submitted by the contractors. We already mentioned that there will be two levels only," said Mahale.

The BMC has also changed the submission of tender dates for the construction of the car parking system at Patwardhan Park for the once again. This is the seventh extension. Now the date for submission of the Patwardhan Park tender is July 24. But this time the BMC hasn't postponed the tender dates of the other two car parking systems at the BMC engineering hub building in Worli and at Flora Fountain.

The BMC had floated a tender to construct the underground parking at Patwardhan Park in Bandra West on March 6. As per the earlier schedule, the last date for submission of the tenders was April 3. The process was first delayed with two extensions for a pre-bid meeting. Initially, the BMC extended the deadlines by a week but the past two times, it extended the deadline by 15 days and now it has extended it for a month.

MLA Ashish Shelar awaited

Residents and activists opposed the move and asked for a meeting with local MLA Ashish Shelar who moved the proposal for the underground parking. The meeting hasn't taken place yet and since then the BMC has been dragging its feet on the proposal. Local residents and activists have filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court against the construction in the open space.

Petitioners Bhathena and Alan Abraham claimed to have visited every commercial building within 150 metres of Patwardhan Park and counted the available car parking spaces (for four and two wheelers). "In the immediate vicinity (within 150 metres) of Patwardhan Park, there exist over 500 officially sanctioned car parking spaces for mercantile establishments. However, the petitioner has observed that almost 400 of these parking spaces are lying unused or encroached upon," said the PIL. On Thursday the PIL was adjourned to June 28 so petitioners can add more info/facts to it.

Tender matters

Tender floated on March 6
Original date of submission of tender April 3
First extension to date of submission of tender April 10
Second extension April 17
Third extension April 24
Fourth extension May 9
Fifth extension May 24
Sixth extension June 23
Seventh extension July 24