Mumbai: Colaba Causeway’s clean sweep unsurprising

Walking free at Colaba Causeway; Putting the cool into Causeway; The Causeway becomes awesway

It was seeing is believing or disbelieving for Colaba locals. The Causeway shopping strip in the area, flooded with hawkers, some legal and several illegal, was all cleaned out on Monday. The Monday miracle happened for PM Narendra Modi's visit for the Reserve Bank of India's 90th anniversary, claimed most residents.

It's typical

Colaba locals, long inured to the pedestrian pathway overrun with hawkers and wares spilling out of boxes and stands, were not surprised as this, they said, followed a pattern. The streets and footpaths are bereft of encroachment and obstruction for VIP visits, and the day after usually there is a boomerang effect when things go back to what they were.

Said Colaba's Pervez Cooper, "Colaba Causeway footpath looks beautiful without encroachments. People can walk freely without being pushed or hassled. These legal/illegal encroachments should be moved to an alternate site and regulated, and there will be several upsides. Firstly, traffic will ease on this road, noise pollution and the double-parking menace will dip. Most of all though, children and seniors will be able to walk on the Causeway, which is certainly not the case now." Cooper added sarcastically, "I certainly hope the Prime Minister visits Colaba every single day."

Hawker norms

Rajiv Daryanani long-time Colaba resident stated that the area he has been brought up in has gone south. "It has gone from bad to worse to intolerable," he said. Daryanani said, "A speed breaker was being removed for a VVIP visit, and the noise did not let people sleep. I was on a walk and was reassured that the work would be over and the noise subsides by early at night. The work went on past 2 am," he said. "I hope that people, especially senior citizens can walk without obstruction posed by hawkers and buyers, most of them who do not even live in the area. We also have the scenario of hawkers leasing out their pitches, flouting hawker norms."

Haresh Hathiramani, a Colaba Residents and Shopkeepers Association (CRSA) member said this was not surprising. He said, "This is usual with VIP movement. It is all spick ‘n' span only to return to status quo once the dignitary leaves. Why clear encroachments at all if the area is to go back to the way it was?" he asked.

Once again

Subhash Motwani, president Clean Heritage Colaba Residents' Association (CHCRA) said, "It has happened again. Our PM who coincidentally is a senior citizen as well (like many residents of Colaba) was going to just pass through Colaba Causeway and the entire Causeway was ‘encroachment free' yet again. How we wish the same intent is shown when citizens' associations of Colaba take our plea of having an encroachment-free Causeway to authorities. All our requests and pleas usually fall on deaf ears. The encroachments, sadly, will be back once the PM is gone." Motwani added that he wished, "the PM's office took heed of this and took to task the hawker's mafia." On the macro picture, Motwani stated this is symptomatic of how "Colaba Causeway has disintegrated from being the prime walkable area for locals and tourists alike, to one of the most congested areas leading to excess traffic, noise pollution, posing a risk of lives of citizens who are compelled to walk on the road due to encroachments, all under the blessings of authorities who follow different guidelines for VIP & ministers and different guidelines for the common man." Just like Cooper, Motwani too said, "This is a request to our PM, if you can't clear them, then do ensure a VIP passes Colaba Causeway daily so that there is a permanent end to this menace."

90th
Anniversary of RBI