Mumbai: How a Metro station row became a Mexican standoff

A poster where Shelar claims credit for the scrapping of the station outside Tata Blocks colony in Bandra West

Two days after MMRDA's plan to drop the National College station from the Metro Line 2B came to light, residents claimed that the proposal to remove the station completely is absurd, as they had only called for moving the station back to its original position. They have now alleged that the decision to propose the dropping of the station was taken purportedly to create a divide within the group who had come together to oppose the "discreet" shifting of the station from its original location and save the green space.

Our demand was never to scrap the National College station from the plan, it was to shift the station back to where it was originally planned near Jeevan Kiran Bungalow and save Sadhu Vaswani Garden," said Zameer Palamkote, joint chairman of Varde Marg Residents' Association on SV Road in Bandra.

The letter sent by the MMRDA to MLA Ashish Shelar

Activist and environmentalist Zoru Bhathena, who has been supporting the residents in the matter, told mid-day, "Cancelling the station is not the solution. They could have saved the station or found out a way to spare the garden. The station has come up in front of someone's house; that's not the fight. There are only two issues here: Move the staircase out of Sadhu Vaswani Garden, which can be easily done. Move station pillars if they are incorrectly located. This can also be easily achieved. Cancelling the entire station has never been the issue here."

Also read: Mumbai: MMRDA plans to drop National College station from Metro 2B plan

He added, "The MLA's claim of success in saving Sadhu Vaswani Garden due to cancelling of the station is totally illogical."As part of its ongoing Metro 2B corridor, MMRDA had changed the location of its National College station on SV road, leaving residents and other stakeholders in for a shock. Locals had alleged they were neither informed nor suggestions or objections were sought from them. mid-day first covered the story on February 28, 2023.

As per the earlier plan for the corridor, there were supposed to be two stations in Bandra West: Bandra, which will be coming up near Lucky restaurant signal, and National College was planned near Jeevan Kiran Bungalow opposite the Railway colony. In February this year, residents found out that the latter station was shifted backwards opposite Tata Blocks Parsi Colony, starting from Grace Galaxy Hotel and extending up to the Maruti Auto Vista showroom on SV Road.

Sadhu Vaswani Garden at the junction of Linking Road and SV Road, which would have been by the National College station, on February 27. Pic/Shadab Khan

The main concern of the residents was that Sadhu Vaswani Garden, the only green space in the area, was set to shrink by approximately 290 square metres as per MMRDA's plan to accommodate the entry and exit points of National College station.

Tata Blocks and SV Road residents, through BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, had approached the state authorities seeking shifting of National College Metro station from outside their residential area as well as Sadhu Vaswani Garden to about 100 metres towards the north.

After Shelar's intervention, MMRDA began working out a solution and thinking of options to save the garden. The MMRDA has now submitted a proposal to the chief minister, citing that deleting the station is the only option as shifting it back to its original location would not be feasible.

In a letter dated August 10 to Shelar, MMRDA stated: "It was requested to shift the proposed National College station back to its original location that is opposite Western Railway Colony. After going through various options, shifting the station back to the original position is difficult. In this regard, a proposal for the deletion of the station has been submitted to the honourable chief minister and chairman of MMRDA for further directions. After receipt of approval from the chief minister and Chairman, the proposal will be put up in the authority meeting of MMRDA for final discussion."

This has created a rift between residents of Bandra, who have slammed the MLA for calling MMRDA's proposal a successful effort of his.

Deyasini Choudhury, architect and member of Khar-Santacruz civic group, said, "Shelar is doing a disservice to the students who would have benefited from this station. The sewer line was initiated by the MLA, which resulted in the shifting of the station, and now he has gone on to cancel the station altogether. This is a ridiculous decision. Metro stations are planned within a one-kilometre distance, so saying this stop is just 800 metres from Bandra station is not an argument."

She added, "MMRDA planned not to have any structure within the garden so that the argument for cancelling is also gone. This is to pander to a few residents of Tata Blocks. The open space, in the final design, would not have been touched. I had coordinated with the MMRDA and they had come up with suggestions that the garden wouldn't have been touched. This is a fight by Parsi colony people to avoid the station in front of their colony."

Meanwhile, Shelar on Monday took to X, formerly Twitter, and posted, "My efforts, taking into consideration the demands of Tata Block and the residents of the area, have finally been successful. The National College Metro station on the Metro 2B route has now been cancelled, and Sadhu Vaswani Garden has been spared. Heartfelt thanks to Hon'ble Chief Minister @mieknathshinde ji for accepting the demand considering the convenience of the citizens and the environment!"

X user Mehfooz Shaikh wrote, "This shows that you are anti-development. To please the people of Tata Blocks, you have cancelled the Metro station and you claim that you were not aware of it when it was being shifted to a new location. This is a big lie, you will be taught a lesson in the upcoming elections sir."

MMRDA officials had told mid-day that moving the station back would be very tedious and involve substantial cost and claimed that the new location had many advantages. Later, various options were discussed with residents. Its decision to abruptly scrap the station has irked activists. "Even this time, they did not consult or discuss the matter with residents, despite them being in touch with officials and engineers," Bhathena said.

August 10
Day MMRDA wrote to Shelar

290
Area of garden that would be lost in sq m