Fisherfolk mount protest as BMC starts work on coastal road-sea link interchange

Roughly 200 fishing boats from Worli koliwada on Thursday morning gheraoed a temporary jetty built by the civic body at its coastal road construction site in Worli, to protest against ongoing work to build an interchange bridge between the coastal road and the Bandra-Worli sea link

Roughly 200 fishing boats from Worli koliwada on Thursday morning gheraoed a temporary jetty built by the civic body at its coastal road construction site in Worli, to protest against ongoing work to build an interchange bridge between the coastal road and the Bandra-Worli sea link. In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) anchored three buoys in the fishing waters, just off Worli Koliwada to facilitate the movement of barges and tugboats in the area, which fisherfolk say will damage their nets and severely hamper their work.

Roughly 200 fishing boats from Worli koliwada on Thursday morning gheraoed a temporary jetty built by the civic body at its coastal road construction site in Worli, to protest against ongoing work to build an interchange bridge between the coastal road and the Bandra-Worli sea link (HT FILE)

Nitesh Patil, a representative of the Worli Koliwada Nakhwa Vyavsay Cooperative Society, said the anchors were dropped with no prior warning to the fishermen. “On October 8 we had a meeting with BMC at their site office near Worli Dairy. We were told they need to create some facilities to allow for the movement of barges and tugboats in our fishing waters, and that a thorough survey will be done in the next 10 days so that it doesn’t cause us any inconvenience. Despite this assurance, they have dropped their anchors in the same area where we cast our nets. Movement of large tugboat in our waters will cause a lot of disturbance. The anchors have already damaged three nets.”

Hindustan Times spoke to two BMC officials privy to the matter, who requested anonymity while commenting. “There seems to have been some miscommunication between Hindustan Construction Company, which dropped the anchors, and the fisherfolk. I wouldn’t call the event a protest, but yes, there seem to be genuine complaints. We have agreed to shift the anchors for the time being and will meet with community members to understand their demands. Besides, we have already appointed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to conduct a survey and determine the compensation amount which can be given to fisherfolk. That will take some time,” said one of the officials.

Another confirmed that the ongoing work — against which fisherfolk protested Thursday — is being carried out for the purpose of building a connecting bridge between the Coastal Road and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. “The anchors are there to support barges that will carry construction materials and machinery from our jetty to the construction site. We are just about to start digging the foundations of the bridge.”

Shweta Wagh, an architect and researcher who has been closely tracking the impact of the Coastal Road on fishing communities, said, “The livelihoods of fisherfolk have suffered due to the Coastal Road, but they are clear that they want to continue practicing fishing despite this. The BMC has not shown any regard for their requests, imposed barriers in their fishing zone, and keeps diverting the issue by talking about compensation. The BMC has not shown any regard for their requests, imposed barriers in their fishing zone, and keeps diverting the issue by talking about compensation. The Coastal Road-Sea Link interchange threatens to cut off Cleveland Bunder from the sea entirely, and despite several requests to authorities for a redesign the BMC has not responded with any willingness to hear them out.”