Don’t intend to prevent fishermen from using Lotus jetty: BMC to HC

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has informed the Bombay High Court that it will not prevent fishermen from using the Lotus jetty during construction of the Coastal Road project. The BMC said the land was never intended for parking fishing vessels indefinitely and rejected the fishermen's plea to stop the work until an alternative site was provided. However, the fishermen have been granted the liberty to apply for compensation and alternate parking space for their trawlers.

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday informed the Bombay high court (HC) that it “does not intend to prevent or obstruct fishermen from using the Lotus jetty” while the Coastal Road project is underway.

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In its affidavit filed in the HC, the civic body further states, “During the monsoon months and even during the fishing season, fishing boats have been and are being kept on the land/beach to the north of the Lotus jetty in Worli.”

The affidavit is filed in response to nine fishermen from Worli, complaining that the civic body had asked them to give up a sizable portion of their boat parking space for Coastal Road work, without offering them any alternative land to park their vessels.

They sought directions restraining BMC officers from obstructing, directly or indirectly, the parking of fishing vessels at Lotus jetty and a further direction to the civic body to provide the fisherfolk alternate space to park their fishing vessels.

As regards the complaints of the petitioners about the forcible removal of three fishing trawlers from the jetty, the civic body claimed that the petitioners had in 2020 brought the second-hand boats and requested the BMC to allow them to temporarily park the same on reclaimed land on south of the jetty – to enable them to repair the boats and make them seaworthy.

The BMC said its officers allowed the three boats to be kept on the south of the jetty, as the area was not immediately required for carrying any work. However, it claimed, the petitioners never repaired the boats and did not make them seaworthy, and the vessels continued where they were parked initially.

It added that in August 2023, when the land was required for Coastal Road work - for the construction of the landing portion of the coastal road from the interchange at Haji Ali and requested the petitioners to shift the boats closure to Lotus jetty and shifted them after the petitioners refused to do so.

The division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Kamal Khata accepted the BMC’s contention and noticed that the reclaimed land was never meant for parking fishing vessels indefinitely. “The reclamation was never intended for the fishermen but was intended for the Coastal Road work,” said the court and rejected petitioner’s plea to restrain the BMC from carrying out work at the disputed site until an alternate site was provided to them for parking their fishing vessels.

The court has, however, granted the fishermen liberty to apply to the BMC for compensation on account of loss of fishing and provision of alternate parking space for their fishing trawlers.