Builders shut Mhada colonies’ access lanes in Vikhroli, inconvenience residents

he rampant redevelopment taking place in Vikhroli East has left many residents of Kannamwar Nagar and Tagore Nagar at a loose end. The reason: builders have taken over and blocked small but important access lanes that have been in use for 50 years

Mumbai: The rampant redevelopment taking place in Vikhroli East has left many residents of Kannamwar Nagar and Tagore Nagar at a loose end. The reason: builders have taken over and blocked small but important access lanes that have been in use for 50 years.

Mumbai, India - February 07, 2023: Access lanes between two buildings in Tagore Nagar and Kannamwar Nagar that are used by citizens to go to bus stops and other side of the colony ,at Vikhroli (East), in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, February 07, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

Both colonies abut the Eastern Express Highway (EEH), and the access lanes in question lead to the foot-over-bridge (FoB) on it. Both colonies jointly house more than 6,500 families.

With redevelopment taking place on the buildings nearest to the EEH in both colonies, other residents have been inconvenienced by the shutting of the access lanes that were in use to access the EEH. “The builders initially blocked all the lanes but opened two after protests,” said a resident. “But they have told us that these two will also be closed soon.”

The small access lanes are on land that is officially called tit-bit land, the latter referring to the scattered area between two buildings that is not owned by either. Although these are small pieces of land, they play a significant role in redevelopment projects where they can be merged for more integrated development, making for additional FSI and more money for builders.

Local activist and lawyer Ritesh Karkera has for a long time been reaching out to different authorities to keep these lanes open. Numerous letters to MHADA, PWD, MMRDA, BMC and local police stations have not elicited a proper response. Karkera has also filed an RTI with MHADA, a copy of which is with HT.

Rahul Vhatkar, an executive engineer with MHADA, responded to one of the RTI queries and said that the tit-bit lands were given to Buildings No 43, 44 and 45 in Tagore Nagar for joint redevelopment. MHADA, however, clearly did not respond to the RTIs concerning other such access lanes which are also being shut by builders, said Karkera. HT tried contacting Vhatkar, but despite explaining the issue through a text message, he did not respond.

“Earlier there was an FoB built by Mhada on this tit-bit land, which helped people cross over easily,” said Karkera. “The FoB was first demolished and then the EEH was handed over to MMRDA. MMRDA now says that they have no records of the bridge, as the road was handed over to them from another agency.”

Residents say that a major hospital, schools, colleges and markets are all located on the Tagore Nagar side. If the access lanes are shut, apart from the other problems, schoolchildren from Kannamwar Nagar who go to school in Tagore Nagar will be forced to reroute by a few kilometres and will perforce have to take an auto rickshaw to cover the distance.

The alternative to the access lanes is a subway built below the EEH which is more than a kilometre away. Residents fear using this subway because chain-snatching and mobile theft cases have been rife here, with two cases in February itself. A murder was also reported in the same subway a few years ago, creating more fear among residents.

“The access roads are nearly 50 years old,” said local Congress leader Rahul Waghdhare. “Even the new bridges built on EEH by MMRDA lead to them. If they are blocked, people from both Kannamwar Nagar and Tagore Nagar will have no direct connectivity. For the sake of getting higher FSI, builders sanctioned by Mhada are encroaching on these lanes. In the past, we had to forcefully open the lanes after they were shut by local builders. We have even approached the local police station but that too has also not yielded any results.”