Citizen warriors vs BMC
Citizens in Mumbai are actively opposing harmful government projects and advocating for community-driven initiatives, improving local environments.
How alert citizen groups have made a difference to their neighbourhoods by agitating against government plans that do not serve a purpose and speaking up for projects they believe in.

Mount Mary residents oppose concretisation
On January 22, members of ALM33 wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s chief engineer of roads and commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, protesting a bid for concretisation. This was not the first time they were taking matters in their own hands.
Citizens often have little say when BMC sets out to concretise roads, “for the greater good of people”. But in the past, when the civic body set its sight on their neighbourhoods, residents of Mount Mary and Kane roads decided to play an equal part in the decision-making process.
“When our roads were laid with paver blocks around 15 years ago, we supervised each part of the process to make sure it was laid perfectly,” said Marine D’Souza, chairperson of ALM 33. “Every time roads are dug up for utilities, we ensure the paver blocks are interlocked properly. Similarly, Kane Road was made in mastic asphalt of the best quality around four years ago. Our roads are perfect even during the monsoon, so there is no for them to be concretised.”
The ALM justified its recent stance: the best roads, said D’Souza, can be made with mastic asphalt, as concrete heats up faster and is bad for car tyres. Besides, as residents of many old buildings along the Mount Mary slope are in talks for redevelopment, when projects take off, there will be a need for digging to facilitate additional utilities. “Also, the paver blocks are aligned to the heritage aesthetics of the Mount Mary and St Stephen’s churches,” she said.
With the support of the former corporator Asif Zakaria, the BMC’s chief engineer of roads department inspected their roads after receiving the letter, although a decision is pending. “We are still undecided about this issue,” said an officer from BMC’s roads department.
Breach Candy’s fight for green cover
With the Coastal Road stretching in their backyard, along with its 87 acres of open spaces, residents of Breach Candy were given an alluring offer in March 2024 -- to collaborate with BMC to design a plan for the open spaces. That birthed the Breach Candy Residents’ Forum (BCRF).
“We wish to suggest a forest in the spaces that will open up, as opposed to recreational spaces which will attract too many people. We are thinking of something skin to ‘a sacred grove,’ communally protected forest fragments,” said Nandini Chabria, co-founder of the forum. Their plan also lays down details of a varied forest cover, starting with dense foliage at the end that borders the residential buildings, to maintain their privacy, to sparse trees with large foliage, moving on to trees with shrubs, and gradually opening towards the side of the promenade with palm trees. By August, 2024, suggestions were sent to BMC.
While the plan is in limbo as BMC wishes to invite private firms to set up and maintain the open spaces, the BCRF has not been sitting still.
With an increase of traffic in their area, after the Coastal Road was opened, members have demanded an additional exit at Nepaeansea Road. Their demand has been heard as BMC has communicated to MSRDC to check for such a feasibility; if approved, the next step will be to seek a green signal from the Coastal Road consultant.
The group has also been successful in stalling the underground car park in their area, which they reasoned would be hard to access, given the busy road adjacent to it. Excavation was already done for the two-level facility, which could accommodate 246 cars. However, BMC stopped further work in October 2024, bowing to citizens’ complaints.
Off with Khar-Santacruz flyover
In the three months between March and May 2024, the force of three citizens’ groups, a solid case and the support of the area’s MLA forced the BMC to drop its design for the Khar Santacruz flyover.
The residents had managed to avert a ₹2,400 crore disaster.
“Since 2018, we – citizens groups of Khar and Santacruz together – have asked the BMC for an alternate elevated road to the Khar subway connecting with the WEH,” said Trivankumar Karnani, from the Mumbai North Central District Forum (MNCDF). In March 2024, it seemed the BMC had delivered to their request. Hemal Mehta, president of the Santacruz East Residents Association (SERA), said, “The BMC called us for a meeting on March 6, to explain the design of the flyover.”
The plan was worse than what they had envisioned.
“The flyover exited on 7th road in Santacruz East, a narrow residential street with buildings on both sides. It also went over the Dinkar Patel garden, the only one in our locality, and touched the VN Desai Hospital, the only government hospital in Santacruz East,” said Mehta, adding, the elevated road would adversely affect 140 buildings in their neighbourhood.
Karnani added, “The flyover goes over the Khar subway into Santacruz, from where it makes a series of turns to go between the entire residential area. Its many turns would cause bottlenecks on the bridge, and destroy the entire neighbourhood with noise and dust pollution through the time of construction.”
The residents were armed with a strong case, having pointed out the many faults in the plan. Quickly, they added to their ranks.
“We joined forces with SERA, MNCDF and Anandini Thakoor’s Khar Residents Association,” said Mehta. Karnani continued: “We demanded meetings with BMC officials, and were set to send them a legal notice, if we did not get audience.”
Their collective voice was heard by MLA Ashish Shelar. They then met commissioner Bhushan Gagrani and AMC Abhijit Bangar, and came out victorious, with Bangar agreeing that “some objections raised by citizens were valid.”
BMC fails to decongest Akurli Road
It takes perseverance to turn a series of complaints on WhatsApp groups into a demand to be tabled before elected representatives.
Santy Shetty, founder of the Kandivali Lokhandwala Township-based We All Connect (wAc), said after offices opened up post-Covid-19, the traffic on Akurli Road became unbearable – crossing a kilometer stretch between Akurli Road to WEH would take almost 50 minutes.
“Our WhatsApp chats were full of complaints about it every day,” said Shetty. In October 2023, Shetty and others in an informal group decided to start a non-political arm that “would look at traffic and civic issues”.
“We started with a meeting with our MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar,” he said.
The wAc had a strategic plan: while the 120-feet DP road is still under construction (with 70% being completed) they proposed improvements for the existing Akurli Road, which is beset with many issues: there are rickshaws parked on both sides, narrowing the road; heavy vehicles travel back and forth from a tractor factory in the area; and U-turns are made in the middle of moving traffic. Shetty’s team decided to flag these issues.
“After our meeting with the MLA, we met officials from BMC and traffic department, who heard us and offered solutions. They agreed to put up dividers on the road to restrict U-turns, set up specific timings for heavy vehicles, station traffic cops at choke points during peak hours, and promised to widen Akurli subway soon,” said Shetty.
Thereon, there have been disappointments.
“There is no accountability,” he said. “We meet the MLA and officials regularly. BMC promised to complete the parabolic dividers within 10 days (from the time of their meeting on January 10); it’s yet to be done. The MLA also does not question them. Our plans, which are supported by an urban planner certified by the BMC, remains stuck in bureaucracy.” An officer R South ward’s road department said, “About 10% of the work remains. The material has been ordered from Pune, which is expected soon; the work will be done.”
Matunga’s ₹126-cr parking plan scrapped
Unlike the many cases where agitating citizens sought support of their elected representatives through their campaign, residents of Matunga found themselves in an opposite situation. In 2022, they learnt about plans floated by their area’s former corporator, Nehal Shah, and MLA Kalidar Kolambkar, for two 22- and 14-storey robotic parking towers outside Matunga Central railway station. They had not asked for either nor were they consulted.
“I am nostalgic about Matunga, having grown up there and living nearby,” said Chetan Trivedi, from the Petition Group, that fought to get the plan scrapped. “No one wanted highrise parking towers right in front of the railway station, which is a busy road.”
Trivedi, with the help of other members of the group, GR Vora and Kamlakar Shenoy, got to work. They filed a series of RTIs to get all the information about the parking towers. “Many irregularities emerged from the around 20 RTIs I filed,” said Trivedi. “The BMC had considered the footpath as a road in its drawings to accommodate the towers. They did not have proper fire NOCs, and the traffic survey they were using was an obsolete one, dated 2019.”
Things came to a head in November 2024, when the BMC put up construction scaffolds around the site, and several of the neighbourhood’s residents and traders approached the group.
“The only exit from Matunga Central railway station would get blocked by the towers; and there would be mayhem in case of an emergency or if a disaster occurred,” said Vora.
Aided with information, the group wrote to officials, demanding the rationale for such a move. “It was the mix of the residents’ support, our determination and all the facts we had pulled out that made our campaign successful,” said Trivedi. After many protests and political support, BMC cancelled the ₹126 crore contract in January, 2025.
Chandivali residents’ agitation for 90-ft rd
Ensconced in a concrete jungle, Chandivali residents’ traffic problems started mounting with real estate growth in the neighbourhood. They had limited options to exit their area – with the Chandivali Farm Road on one side, and DP Road 9 on the other, both remaining congested.
“They are narrow roads, with no footpaths, and encroachments on both sides,” said Mandeep Singh Makkar, founder of the CCWA, which was started to air civic issues in the area. “To get to JVLR, we have to take the DP Road 9, a 500-meter stretch that takes 30 to 40 minutes due to its poor state.”
Residents once took to satire to call authorities’ attention on state of the road: ‘brave’ motorists were felicitated for using “one of the worst roads of Mumbai” in July 2023.
Eventually, the group started planning big. Troubled by the fear that emergency services of fire brigades and ambulances would not be able to reach them in time, in August 2023 they started the demand with a hunger strike for a 90-feet road – which exists in the Development Plan – from Chandivali Farm Road to JVLR, giving a better and faster alternative.
The BMC took notice and floated a tender for ₹28 crore to build the long-promised road. “This was a big achievement. Although little on-ground work has started, BMC has acquired one side of the land for the road and is in talks for acquiring the other side from Shipping Corporation of India,” he said.
Parallelly, improvements are in progress on the DP Road 9 too which is being concretised – one half was done before the monsoons, the second half is being done. Commuters can hope for a better drive in future.
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