Mumbai: Cuffe Parade fishermen protest over 300-acre reclamation park

Revisiting their four-year-old tussle with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the fishermen of Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai staged a protest at the fishermen colony over the construction of the 300-acre Backbay Reclamation park, planned by the civic body, off the coast in the Arabian Sea

Revisiting their four-year-old tussle with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the fishermen of Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai staged a protest at the fishermen colony over the construction of the 300-acre Backbay Reclamation park, planned by the civic body, off the coast in the Arabian Sea.

South Mumbai's Backbay Reclamation. (Hindustan Times)

Revisiting the project, that has been stalled for the past two years after the fisherman did not allow the civic body-appointed third-party consultants to conduct surveys for feasibility report and oceanographic survey, to understand the impact of the park on marine life, BMC will present the development plan of the 300-acre ‘Green Park’ as it is being termed by BMC, on Saturday morning at Radio Club in Mumbai. BMC on March 8 sent a letter to the Machhimar Sarvoday Sahkari Samiti inviting them to the presentation.

Local leaders, member of Parliament Arvind Sawant, Mumbai Congress president Ashok Jagtap, member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Rahul Narwekar and local corporator Harshita Narwekar, leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in BMC Rakhi Jadhav have been invited for the presentation.

Following this, fishermen from the area on Thursday evening staged a protest. Bhuvaneshwar Dhanu, member of Macchimar Sarvoday Co-operative Society, Cuffe Parade, said, “We had earlier decided to boycott the presentation. But now we have decided to attend it, and then express our opposition to the project at the meeting.”

In 2018, BMC had appointed Tata Consulting Engineers as a consultant to prepare a feasibility report of the project, and the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) to conduct an oceanographic survey to understand the impact of the park on the marine ecosystem, and climate along city’s coastline. After a few sessions, the fishermen did not allow the consultants to collect samples for the survey.

According to Dhanu, presently BMC has accommodated parking of 200 boats for fishermen in the harbour. He said, “We saw the plans, and realised there is inadequate parking space. We should be allowed to park 350 boats. There is also construction planned in the pathway we use to access the sea during low tide. This will make it impossible for us to access the sea unless there is high tide.” The community also wants to be declared as project affected persons.

They believe the project will affect their livelihood and kill the catch. Parshuram Meher, Mumbai president of the Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti said, “In 2017 we learned of the project and have opposed it since the beginning. This will destroy our business. Apart from this park, the Shiv Smarak is also being constructed on this site in the sea. The fishermen of Cuffe Parade will have no income left.”

Two years ago, the community submitted 16-point demands to then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of which eight were accepted by the government at the time. They included more space to park boats, jobs for the local fishermen of Cuff Parade in any leisure and entertainment developments that would be operated at the park, among others.

A senior civic official said, “BMC is reopening dialogue with the community, and addressing their concerns. We had appointed consultants to study how their livelihood will be affected. The fishermen community did not allow that studies to happen. Then in 2020 coronavirus lockdown happened. On Saturday, we are only making a presentation. Dialogue with the fishermen will continue, so we can find a middle ground.”