Caught off guard by the restoration works at Bandra fort backyard which has ‘altered’ the unique character, cautious locals have now skilled their eyes in the direction of defending the greens at Bandra’s Mehboob Studio Circle. In a preemptive transfer, Bandra residents, on Wednesday, wrote to Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC) opposing the civic proposal to ‘scale back, beautify’ the backyard close to Mehboob studio and depart the protected inexperienced house untouched.
In keeping with senior civic officers, the backyard at Bandra West’s Mehboob Studio Chowk was just lately handed over to ‘I Love Mumbai’ basis for upkeep. Earlier this month, Bandra MLA Ashish Shelar carried out the ‘bhoomipujan’ ceremony for the beautification and renovation of the Mehboob Studio Circle, stating that the venture seeks to supply a contemporary facelift to the historic precinct.
After posters asserting the venture got here to gentle, the proposal sparked considerations amongst native residents over the impression of the diminished inexperienced cowl within the Madhukar Kulkarni Udyan (Mehboob Studio Chowk). Whereas the BMC maintains that the venture won’t take a success on the inexperienced cowl, residents have been left aggrieved over the probability of concretisation and removing of timber within the pocket, particularly after Bandra the fort backyard scenario.
With practically 130 signatories, native residents on Wednesday, submitted a letter to senior civic officers of H/West ward in addition to the Bandra MLA Ashish Shelar, interesting to the involved authorities to take all of the stakeholders and residents into confidence earlier than continuing with the plan.
“Madhukar Kulkarni backyard is gorgeous, properly maintained and requires no beautification. Moreover, no discount of greenery, no substitute of current crops and no cementing is required. Please don’t contact our protected inexperienced house that comes underneath CRZ II as it’s a no-development zone,” learn part of the letter.
Talking to The Indian Categorical, a senior official from BMC, nevertheless, stated that there have been proposals that search to cut back the inexperienced thicket of the backyard, which sprawls over 1,000 sq. metres. “The land parcel on the Mehboob Circle lies with the BMC and was just lately handed over to the ‘I Love Mumbai’ basis to take care of the house. We’ve neither obtained nor accepted any permissions for reducing timber on this house. The muse has solely been roped in for clearing and sustaining the world,” an official stated.
The residents’ considerations have emerged alongside the heels of the latest opening of the Bandra fort backyard, whose renovation works have drawn flak. Whereas a number of have expressed considerations over the ‘modified aesthetics’ of the 400-year-old fort, many locals have additionally raised plaints over the concretisation of the ‘concretised’ gardens, which has diminished the inexperienced cowl.
