After The Free Press Journal highlighted the plight of Borivali residents suffering from bottleneck traffic due to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s failure to pay Rs. 5.33 lakhs to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park for diversion of 0.018 hectares of forest land, the corporation paid the remaining amount and has started the road widening work.

On September 19, The Free Press Journal had reported that motorists were facing severe traffic congestion for 15 years due to the bottleneck situation at Borivali’s Kulupwadi. Since the BMC was unable to pay a sum of Rs. 5.33 lakhs, the diversion of forest land was halted resulting into a roadblock for the road widening work.

The residents of Kulupwadi area had also decided to stage a protest to demand riddance from traffic congestion as they were caught in a dispute between the BMC and the national park. However, they were denied permissions from the police after which they expressed their outrage over social media. The residents had even shown will to raise the funds themselves as the BMC had failed to pay the money. 

The work order issued by the additional principal chief conservator of the forests western region granted approval to the diversion of 0.018 hectares of land “in favour of the BMC for widening of existing Kulupwadi Road connecting Western Express Highway, Borivali (East) in Village Kanheri”. The work order said that the amount had been deposited through the prescribed channels and working permission was issued to the executive engineer of the P and R wards.

The residents have expressed contentment over the forest department’s as the road widening work will prove as the solution to their traffic woes that have continues for over one and a half decade. The residents believe that motorists will be able to cross the junction in a couple of minutes compared to the current situation where it takes more than 20 minutes.

Avinash Thawani, a resident of the area and founder of MumbaiMarch which has been involved in negotiating between the departments to resolve the issue, said, “The traffic is so worse that once a pedestrian was almost crushed to death between a bus and the wall as there was no space to walk. Luckily he got saved after suffering a few fractures. After our online protest, the BMC paid the remaining amount and the forest department has swiftly worked to issue the work order. We hope that the work is executed at a good space so that we have a smooth traffic flow soon.”

Gopal Jhaveri, a resident and member of MumbaiMarch, said, “Mumbai has around 250 similar missing links as the land parcels belong to airports, defence or forests. If a person is stuck at these bottlenecks for five minutes in the morning and evening daily, it sums up to annually wasting three days in traffic. All of these missing links should be addressed so the citizens benefit from it.”