Chandivali residents mark two year anniversary of BMC’s unkept promise

Residents used the ‘Jhoot Bolo’ (Tell Lies) cake cutting ceremony at a building club house in Nahar Amrit Shakti Road, to sarcastically highlight the civic body’s frustrating delay in constructing a 90-foot road which will give the residents quicker and easier access to the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), cutting their travel time from Chandivali to JVLR to a mere 15 minutes

Mumbai: After a two year long wait for a 90-foot road, over a 100 residents of the Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association cut a cake to mark the second year anniversary of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) unfulfilled promise. Residents used the ‘Jhoot Bolo’ (Tell Lies) cake cutting ceremony at a building club house in Nahar Amrit Shakti Road, to sarcastically highlight the civic body’s frustrating delay.

Mumbai, India - September 14, 2025: Chandivali Citizens welfare Association celebrate 2nd Anniversary of BMC jhot Bolo of costructing 90feet road connecting JVLR to Chandvali at Chandivali, in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, September 14, 2025. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Once the promised road is built, it will give the residents quicker and easier access to the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), cutting their travel time from Chandivali to JVLR to a mere 15 minutes. At present, thanks to the traffic congestion it takes them nearly 45 minutes to 1 hour. The civic body’s Development Plan (DP) road will give many buildings in the vicinity easy access to the highway, ease the traffic, and provide alternate routes.

HT first reported about this issue in 2023, when the Chandivali residents staged a hunger strike, to bring the DP road to the civic body’s attention. The strike prompted the BMC to issue a statement which said that the work tender would be given within a month and the construction would start within a year. “Now it has been two years, yet no work has started,” said Mandeep Makkar, founder of CCWA.

Soon after the civic body made its promise to the Chandivali residents, it sent notices to the slum dwellers of the Manubhai Chawl, asking them to vacate their premises. “We sent notices to over 80 encroached units there, but they went to court against the notice,” said Dhanaji Herlekar, Assistant Commissioner of L ward.

Herlekar added that while the SCI had agreed to relocate to accommodate the new road, the corporation demanded the BMC to take complete possession of the land before they moved. “Last year the litigation ended when the court ordered the private builder to give the encroachers rehabilitation under the SRA scheme,” said Herlekar.

However, residents of Chandivali pointed out that the private builder had begun developing other parts of the area but had not carried out the SRA development. “The civic body should put the condition of completing this work before going on to next work,” said Makkar, highlighting that as new houses come up, the population of the area will rise, along with the number of cars, leading to even more traffic.

The CCWA members added that the traffic congestion also hinders the timely response of essential services like the fire brigade and ambulances since they have to navigate their way through narrow roads.

On September 2, the CCWA wrote a letter to the BMC Municipal Commissioner, Bhushan Gagrani, regarding the issue, but with no sign of the promised roads, the residents remain in limbo.