Environmentalists object to hoardings along Mumbai Coastal Road

The BMC plans to erect two hoardings near Haji Ali along the Coastal Road route. File pic/Ashish Raje

Objections to putting up hoardings along the Coastal Road are on the rise. Now, environmental activists who had opposed the Coastal Road through a petition in the Supreme Court have joined the rally. The Breach Candy Residents Forum has already started an online petition to oppose the move and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray raised the issue in a meeting with the municipal commissioner a week ago.

The BMC had decided to allow six hoardings - four in Tata Garden and two in an open space near Haji Ali - along the coastal road. The corporation is likely to get around R5 crore revenue per year from these hoardings. Though the decision hasn't been implemented, it has already stirred strong opposition from residents and politicians. Now environmentalists have joined the bandwagon. On Monday, Vanashakti NGO director Stalin D - one of the petitioners in the Supreme Court case against reclamation of the sea for the Coastal Road project - and another activist Zoru Bathena wrote to the municipal commissioner to oppose the hoardings proposal.

The letter mentions that the Supreme Court, by order dated December 17, 2019, has restrained MCGM from carrying out any type of development work without prior permission of the court. MCGM has neither applied for nor been permitted to erect any hoardings/commercial signboards on the Coastal Road. Even as per the CRZ Regulations, reclaimed land can be put to use only for public purposes. "We reminded the BMC that the entire Coastal Road is planned as a green and public space, and it is not open to commercial exploitation," Bathena said.

Meanwhile, the online petition started by Rajesh Dahiya of the Breach Candy Residents Forum gathered momentum with about 6,000 citizens endorsing it.
The petition reads that the subject concerns citizens residing at Nepeansea Road, Breach Candy, Haji Ali, the fishermen's habitats at Lotus junction and Worli, amongst many others. The petition mentioned that erecting hoardings would not only spoil the aesthetics but also distract drivers. "Once started, there will be no end to such encroachments and we will be left with another Western Express Highway-kind of infrastructure in place of what has been visualised as the central park of Mumbai," it states.

The forum has written to the municipal commissioner and chief minister of Maharashtra expressing its concern against commercially exploiting the space and requested that the proposal be put on hold and discussions be held with all stakeholders before any such step is taken. Dahiya said that they haven't received any response except an email acknowledgement from the chief minister's office. The email was forwarded to the urban development department.

Sena (UBT) leader and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray has also demanded that the hoardings should not be installed on the Coastal Road's open spaces. After taking to X to share a letter he had written about the issue to civic chief Bhushan Gagrani on Sunday (July 4), Thackeray met the latter at the BMC headquarters the following day. During the meeting, he reiterated that no hoarding should be allowed on the Coastal Road's open spaces as they could cause accidents. BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar, in response, claimed that Thackeray's (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government did not file an affidavit to ensure there were no such constructions.

A senior BMC official said though the corporation received objections from the citizens, it is too early to comment on the issue.

Six
Total no. of hoardings BMC plans to erect