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Sobo Roads Revamp Hits Encroachment Hurdle

  • Road widening in south Mumbai, undertaken by the BMC, faces the challenge of encroachments and old structures.With the bottleneck policy stuck in a political battle, the civic body is having a tough time carrying out road repairs. TOI has learnt that repair work in Byculla, Grant Road and Kalbadevi has been severely affected due to encroachments and old structures. With the number of old structures high in south Mumbai compared to the suburbs, rehabilitation of project-affected persons is a big question.

  • In a bid to tackle the problem of encroachments and rehabilitation, the civic administration had floated the bottleneck policy. The policy aimed at addressing bottlenecks by removing encroachments on the roads that need to be widened. The owners of commercial and residential properties will be offered either monetary compensation on ready reckoner rates or other alternatives. However, the standing committee failed to ratify the policy as members did not come to a conclusion on the cut-off date for rehabilitation, which currently stands at 1995.

  • With an eye on the elections, the members had demanded that the civic administration revise the cut-off date to 2000.TOI has learnt that the Dharavi 90-Foot Road has around 604 commercial establishments that the BMC needs to rehabilitate in order to widen the motorway. According to the development plan (1991), the Dharavi road is meant to be 90-feet-wide, however, due to encroachments the road's width is only 40 to 50 feet.

  • Similarly, there are around 80 structures and 127 hutments on Maulana Azad Road in Byculla, which the civic body plans to widen to 90 feet. Similarly, the BMC has to widen Morlean Road to 60 feet from its current width of 40 feet. There are around 167 slums on the road. In 2011, the BMC decided to repair 160 major city roads by awarding contracts worth Rs 570 crore.The contracts were awarded in September 2011 and work was scheduled to start in October 2011. Several hurdles, including administrative delays and the traffic police's refusal to issue no-objection certificates, delayed the work. The deadline for the first phase of road works is February 29 and the second is May 31.

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