Mumbai: BMC builds police chowki and public urinal in same building!

Upset officials at Antop Hill police station have now written to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to request a different location for the new beat chowki

It looks like the space crunch in the city is getting to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as well. For, the civic body is now constructing a police chowki in a building that will also house public urinals, with only a wall to separate the two, much to the cops’ dismay. The upset policemen have now written to the BMC, asking for the new chowki to be moved to a different location.

Both the beat chowki (top, right) and the public urinals are to be housed in a single structure that the BMC is currently building in the Antop Hill bus depot compound. All that separates the public loos from the chowki is the wall in between. 

The Antop Hill police station in Wadala already has a beat chowki in the area, but that will soon be demolished to make way for wider roads. With the Monorail pillars and the Antop Hill bus depot blocking considerable space on the existing road there, the BMC has decided to widen the road. Apart from the beat chowki, some commercial stalls, urinals and a tree will fall victim to the project.

The old beat chowki will soon be demolished for widening  the road. Pics/Datta Kumbhar

While wider roads are well and good, Antop Hill cops are none too pleased about the fact that the corporation is building them the new chowki right next to public toilets. Not only will that pose a health hazard, but the stench alone could make it an unpleasant arrangement, hardly what the city’s finest deserve.

On Wednesday, Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Surve from the Antop Hill police station wrote a letter to the BMC that reads, “The BMC is shifting Beat number 4 of the Antop Hill police station next to a urinal, and there is just a wall to separate the two. This could cause health issues for the policemen, and they need to be shifted to another place not next to a urinal.”

The new structure is being built inside the compound of the local bus depot, on BMC-owned land. Though the plot has enough space that the BMC could have built two separate structures for the chowki and the toilets, the current plan has instead stuck the two together, wasting the surrounding space.

Officials from the civic body, however, could not comment on why the construction had been planned so. BMC ward officer Alka Sasane said, “I am not aware of this and will have to check the details and respond after the weekend.”

An engineer from the road department, currently working on the road widening project, said, “The shifting and alternate locations have been planned by the ward office. Hence, we won’t have information about the plan.”

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