Mumbai: 200-m Andheri road riddled with potholes, garbage and encroachments

Hell is a 6-ft-wide road opposite Infinity Mall in Andheri. About 200 m of the 800-m stretch is choked with traffic, garbage, chawls and potholes.

The road, commonly known as JVLR extension, leads to the Balasaheb Thackeray Flyover and is the only route to get to the Western Urban Road from Lokhandwala, Versova and Oshiwara.

"One side of the road was used as a dumping ground," said Naresh Malhotra, treasurer of Evershine Cosmic, the only building on this bad patch. "But local MLA Bharti Lavekar got it cleaned up last year. For a while, no one dumped garbage there. But in January, a drain was dug up there and left halfway. As a result, all sewage spills onto the road. Following this, the dumping began again."

He said the bigger challenge is to clear encroaching shops. "They have been served notices, but no one has vacated. The road has to be widened to ease the congestion. People living in slums need to be rehabilitated. During peak hours, it takes at least half an hour to clear the T-junction."

The stretch comes under the jurisdiction of two wards. The left side belongs to BJP corporator Ranjana Patil, and the other to Shiv Sena's Rajul Patel. "There is a court case going on over the illegal shops," said Patil. She said a dargah at the corner of the road and chawls beside it have been served eviction notices.

Patel said the slums cannot be razed until the end of monsoon. "We have begun a survey on illegal hutments. We will take 1.5 years at least to develop this road."