‘OPEN SPACES HELP SOCIAL NETWORKING’Cross Maidan gets a clean, mean look

It was a long-drawn battle

for residents of Churchgateto get the authorities to take

note of four acres of CrossMaidan that had turned intoa no-man’s land. The space thatwas encroached upon and ren-dered absolutely unusable be-came a sanctuary for residentsin June 2010. Nearly four acresof Cross Maidan near Church-gate at one end of Fashion Str-eet was thrown open to public.

For years, the patch had be-come a cradle for hutmentsand fences were broken. Resi-dents recall it as a virtual“dumping ground”.

The Organisation for Ver-dant Ambience and Land(Oval) Trust conceptualizedthe project’s beautification.The plot now has a large ex-panse of trees, lawns, walkingtracks and benches for seniors.

The Cross Maidan gardenwas handed over to the OvalTrust in 2006. At that time, itwas discovered that the gov-ernment resolution (GR) didnot include more than an acreof the southern edge of theground hawkers had encroa-ched upon. “The process of get-ting another GR for that spacetook many years, and this areawas handed over to the trustin October 2009. The entire pro-cedure was lengthy but wekept going,” said Nayana Kath-palia, one of the trustees of theOval Trust.

“Even after the plot washanded over to us, the gov-ernment gave it without clear-ing the encroachments. In fact,even now there is a commer-cial office functioning in thegarden which needs to becleared,” Kathpalia said.

We used the ground asone of the venues forKala Ghoda festival. Agate must be made atthe Veer Nariman Roadend to attract morevisitors. The encroachedground is cleared. It isan example of how adump yard can beconverted intoa green haven

Shirin Bharucha |

WORKS WITH URBAN

RENEWAL TRUSTS

It took us years toget the govt topay heed to this

plot. Now, Cross Maidangarden must be takenas an example of how ahaven can be createdwith consistent efforts.The govt must ideally

do its work andthen seekcitizens’ help

Nayana Katpalia |TRUSTEE,

OVAL TRUST

Cross-Over To Beauty� For years, Cross Maidan remained encroached upon, itsfences were broken and it was rendered unusable � The maidan’s beautification was conceptualized by theOrganisation for Verdant Ambience and Land (Oval) Trust

� In June 2010, nearly four acres of the new-improved maidanwere thrown open to the public

� The plot now has a large expanse of trees, lawns, walkingtracks as well as benches for senior citizens

After

The struggle was proba-bly as long and difficultas the task to transform

an encroached space into alush garden. After a long courtbattle and follow-ups with theBMC and government agen-

cies, First Pasta Lane of Cola-ba finally got a green lung.

It all began 23 years agowith a residents’ movementagainst an eatery’s kitchen, agodown and a garage that hadencroached upon municipal

plots earmarked as gardensand a recreational ground. Themovement lost momentum lat-er and was revived in 2006 wh-en the First Pasta Lane Resi-dents’ Association, through an RTI query, found out that theeatery stood on a BMC plot.

Residents followed up withthe BMC for over two years andthe kitchen was demolished.Preparations to create the gar-den started in December 2009,said Vijay Advani, joint secre-tary of the First Pasta Lane Re-sidents’ Association.

THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI | SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2012

LAYOUT RECREATION GROUNDS | FORTS & HISTORIC PRECINCTS | HILLS & FORESTS | CITY FORESTS | PEOPLE-FRIENDLY RAILWAY STATIONS | AREA NETWORKING

Creating open spaces>>

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Imagine being able towalk or cycle from Mal-ad to Colaba or Chem-bur to south Mumbaialong well-maintained

walking-and-cycling tracks,with gardens and parks toview or rest in along the way.Maybe you could even stopby a beach. Sounds unreal,especially in a city like Mum-bai, which offers an abysmalamount of open space to its12.4 million residents.

But this is one of thelonger-term goals of theOpen Mumbai plan beingpromoted by city architect PK Das and his team, whoseek to change the way Mum-bai deals with open spaces.The plan may sound fancifulbut a year of research, doc-umentation, mapping andcollating statistics has goneinto developing a vision thatseeks to place “people andcommunity life at the centreof planning, not real estateand construction potential”.

The team has mapped avariety of open spaces andother green zones across thecity, in the bargain conclud-ing that Mumbai sprawlsacross 482.7 square kilome-tres and not 437, as com-monly cited. The team hasconcluded that an incredible43%, or 208.2 sq km, of Mum-bai includes green zones likegardens, playgrounds, en-croached open spaces, no-de-velopment zones, lakes, wet-lands and beaches. Much ofthis can be developed as pub-lic spaces or at least pro-tected from land sharks;mangroves, for example,could have boardwalks forviewing or strolls.

The plan seeks to linkneighbourhoods to parks,walking tracks, beaches andpromenades. “It seeks to net-work open spaces in a waythat enables and nurturessocial networking. Disparateopen spaces, disparate ac-tivity, disparate public lifecan be integrated into a com-prehensive whole,” Das says.“The quality of publicspaces a city offers its resi-dents is a reflection of the

residents’ dignity and qual-ity of life.”

An example of how anarea can be interlinked is inthe Juhu Vision Plan, whichseeks to integrate the beachwith playgrounds, walkingand cycling tracks. Authori-ties have already begunbuilding tracks along the IrlaNullah with MPLAD fundsgiven by Javed Akhtar.

Overall, Das’s team callsfor amendments and provi-sions to be included in theDevelopment Plan and De-velopment Control Regula-tions to facilitate amakeover in Mumbai. Theplan calls for an Open Mum-bai Board, made up of gov-ernmental agencies and cit-izens’ groups, to prepare acomprehensive plan for de-veloping open spaces,“thereby improving thequality of life and environ-ment of the city”.

First Pasta Lane walks up the garden path

Pasta Perfect� 23 years ago, Colaba residents first raised their voice againstan eatery’s kitchen, a godown and a garage that had encroachedupon municipal plots earmarked as gardens and a ground� In 2008, BMC demolished the eatery’s kitchen; preparations tocreate the garden started in December 2009 and it was thrownopen to the public in 2010

It has benefitedthe wholecommunity.

Because of the kitchen,there was a lot ofpollution. But now, wehave a long stretch ofopen space, which isunusual in Mumbai. Wehave greenery and agarden. Neighbouringslumdwellers also use it

Dilip Mehrotra | A RESIDENT

This is a major winfor residents who

were fighting a losingbattle since 2004. Wehope this will restore thecity forest as visualizedAshoke Pandit | MEMBER, SAVE OPEN SPACES IN JUHU

After

Before

WHERE’S MY PLAYGROUND? A bird’s-eye view of the Andheri-Malad area shows high-rises and slums battling for space and just asmall barren patch of land that could serve as a recreation area

Uma Kadam

Hemant Shirodkar

Roadblocks cleared for Juhu ‘city forest’

After a seven-year-longbattle with a privateagency, members of

Save Open Spaces (SOS),a Juhu citizens group, succ-eeded in saving a vital recre-ation ground plot, earmarkedas a ‘city forest’ at JVPDscheme. It was former mu-nicipal commissioner S STinaikar’s vision.

The plot is adjacent toVidyanidhi High School atJVPD scheme. Citizens hadmade a last-ditch effort to

save the plot on January 18,2011, and met municipal co-mmissioner Subodh Kumar.

Citizens submitted a de-sign plan, which was appro-ved by civic authorities.

The design plan includesgrowing a forest alongsidethe Irla nullah, buildingwalking and cycling tracks,introducing cultural spacessuch as a small amphithe-atre, an art exhibition cen-tre, children’s play area anda garden.

Get the Plot� In 2004, citizens started abattle to save an 18-acre Juhuplot earmarked as ‘city forest’

� In Jan 2011, a delegationmet civic chief Subodh Kumar

� In March 2011, Kumarapproved a proposal tocancel Ronson Foundation’slease, which had been givenon a caretaker basis

� In Aug 2011, BMC gave itsnod to take possession of plot

AfterBefore

New mayor wants a clean,beautiful and secure city

Sukhada Tatke &

Shawan Sen | TNN

The Shiv Sena, alongwith the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and

other alliance partners got asainik elected as the first citi-zen of the country’s richestmunicipal corporation for thefourth successive time on Fri-day. This came after the bon-homie between the Sena andMaharashtra NavnirmanSena (MNS) in Thane extend-ed to the Brihanmumbai Mu-nicipal Corporation (BMC),with all 28 MNS corporatorsremaining absent.

Senior Sena member SunilPrabhu (42), who has held sev-eral important portfolios inthe party, won with a majori-ty of 125 votes garnered fromhis party, the BJP, RepublicanParty of India, AkhilBharatiya Sena and BharipaBahujan Mahasangh. All 15independents, including rebelsVishnu Gaikwad and VijayTandel (both Congress) andCyril D’Souza (NationalistCongress Party), voted for theSena.

Sunil More, a Congress-NCP nominee and staunchNarayan Rane supporter, se-cured 65 votes and it appearedthat the combine did not domuch to garner the inde-pendents’ support.

Soon after his election,

Prabhu iterated his agenda tofulfill promises made in theparty manifesto. “I want aclean, beautiful and a secureMumbai. I am aware that thecity has many challenges todeal with. I want to improvethe healthcare sector, roads,water supply and security,”said Prabhu.

The deputy mayor, too, is

from the saffron alliance. Mo-han Mithbaonkar (BJP), fromthe party’s stronghold in

Borivli, secured 122 votes,while his rival, Harun Khan(NCP), got 65 votes.

The process went on forover six hours as each corpo-rator voted by a show of handand then stood up to announcethe name of the candidates/he was voting for. Cheeringon from the balcony of theHouse were Shiv Sena CEO

Uddhav Thackeray, son Aa-ditya Thackeray, BJP leaderVinod Tawde and RPI leader

Ramdas Athavle.Thackeray later said that

the Sena, BJP, RPI worked together to get the numbers.“The independents believe inour agenda. Thirteen inde-pendents had given their writ-ten support to the alliance,”he said.

Nine Samajwadi Partymembers too abstained. Thelast mayoral election also sawsix MNS members being ab-sent and seven SP membersabstaining.

Political observers said theMNS has always silently sup-ported the Sena wheneverneeded. “This time, the MNSneeds the Sena’s support forthe Nashik mayor’s post,” anobserver said.

This is the first generalbody meeting in many yearswhere new and young facesoutnumbered the old.

Many new members wereboth anxious and excited. Awoman was seen rehearsingher ‘I vote for’ speech min-utes before her turn.

Another heaved a sigh ofrelief once she announced hervote and asked her neighbourif she sounded okay.

But the highlight waswhen Sena leader UddhavThackeray descended fromthe balcony to the main halland many new corporatorstook out their mobilephones and ran towards himto get a photo clicked. Manyof them were Congress andNCP corporators.

The five new nominatedcouncillors are AshwinVyas (BJP), Avakash Jad-hav, Mahiraj Shaikh (bothShiv Sena), Parul Mehta(Congress) and GirishDhanorkar (MNS).

FIRST CITIZEN: Sunil Prabhu with deputy mayor Mohan Mithbaonkar

St Xavier’s College assistant professor Avkash Jadhav got acall four days ago from Aditya Thackeray, grandson of Shiv

Sena chief Bal Thackeray, asking for his resume. He later got acall from Sena CEO Uddhav Thackeray offering him anominated corporator’s post in the Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation. It was a “pleasant surprise” for Jadhav, who hastaught Aditya for two years. Jadhav’s interaction with Adityawas not restricted to the classroom. “We had lively discussionseven outside. He is a down-to-earth person with a vision,” saidJadhav, who teaches history and has a keen interest in socialservice. From presenting research papers, Jadhav’s focus in theBMC will be education. “I see this as a platform to work for thecity rather than a ward,” he said. Aditya said, “The idea is tobring in more vibrancy to the corporation.”—Shawan Sen

Aditya’s history prof nominated

Shriram Vernekar

Independents& Allies HelpPrabhu Win;MNS Absent

TIMES CITY

Now, cabbiesthreaten

strike fromMarch 19

Manthan K Mehta | TNN

Mumbai: Nearly 35,000 taxishave threatened to go an in-definite strike from March19 to demand an increase infares due to revision in theprices of compressed natu-ral gas (CNG).

A L Quadros, general sec-retary, Mumbai Taximen’sUnion (MTU), said, “TheMumbai Metropolitan Re-gional Transport Authority(MMRTA) cancelled twomeetings with the union todiscuss the fare hike. If theycontinue to take our de-mands lightly, we will haveno option but to go on strike.”In a proposal to MMRTA, thetaximen’s union has soughtan increase in minimumfares from Rs 16 to Rs 20 andfor every additional kilome-tre from Rs 10 to Rs 12. OnFebruary 17, Mahanagar GasLtd increased CNG prices byRs 1.63 per kg.

Auto union leader SharadRao has demanded a hikefrom Rs 11 to Rs 16.

3 officials shiftedMumbai: The state gov-ernment on Friday trans-ferred three IAS officers: JS Saharia, additional chiefsecretary, relief and reha-bilitation, was shifted to theschool education depart-ment; Vijay Suryavanshi,private secretary to cabinetminister HarshavardhanPatil, was appointed jointCEO, MIDC; and Bhandaradistrict collector P B Kalb-hor was named Gondia col-lector. TNN

Shriram Vernekar

Proposed city forest design