Fire engulfs khataras in Borivali

Fire breaks out at Borivali ground used for scrapped vehicles, despite complaints to BMC. Second incident in 2 weeks. BMC blames police for not removing vehicles.

Mumbai: A fire broke out on Tuesday morning at a ground in Borivali used for dumping scrapped and abandoned vehicles, also known as khataras. Residents said the vehicles destroyed in the fire had been dumped more than three years ago, and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had failed to remove them despite complaints registered with the Clean Mumbai helpline, the civic body’s control room and posts on social media.

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“The site has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes as well as antisocial activities. When we raised a complaint on the CM’s cleanliness helpline, some vehicles were moved to the side, but the khataras remained as they have been for years together,” said Niyati Bhayani, a resident of the area who has been raising the matter with the BMC using various mediums, but to little effect.

Officers from the civic body’s disaster control room said the fire broke out at the Rajda playground near the Rajda school and the Minal cooperative housing society in Borivali around noon and was extinguished by the fire brigade in about 20 minutes.

“The fire could have been caused by a spark. The fire brigade is ascertaining the exact reason behind it,” said Sandhya Nandedkar, assistant commissioner of R Central ward.

Tuesday’s incident was the second in two weeks wherein khataras went up in flames. On February 6, around 100-150 scrap vehicles dumped in an open space behind the Teacher’s Colony in Bandra east had caught fire, and the fire brigade had taken around 2 hours to douse the flames.

HT had, in August 2023, reported about how the BMC was turning open spaces in Borivali and Saki Naka into khatara graveyards. But Nandedkar shifted the blame for Tuesday’s incident to the police, saying the khataras had been lying in the ground since 2020, when the police confiscated them, and requests to remove them had fallen on deaf ears.

“When we wrote to the police urging them to discard the vehicles, they requested an alternate plot, which will not solve the problem. We also told them that the BMC would discard the vehicles, but even that was denied,” said Nandedkar.

When contacted, officials from the Borivali police station said they had not received any request from the BMC regarding removing the khataras.

Last week, the BMC had seized 87 abandoned vehicles that had piled up along roads and pedestrian walkways in Lower Parel, freeing up more than 10,000 square feet of space. The vehicles were serving as breeding grounds for mosquitoes and rodents as well as potential shelters for anti-social elements, said residents.