Mumbai police halt protest march against Coastal Road

The protest was aimed against land reclamation happening for the coastal road

Police, on Sunday morning, stopped a group of around 100 protestors — most of them from south Mumbai — marching from Breach Candy to Priyadarshini Park in Malabar Hill, in protest against the ongoing coastal road project.

The citizens’ group claimed the land reclamation that was happening was illegal and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was reclaiming land that was not part of the coastal road. (Kunal Patil/HT Photo)

The protesters had gathered outside Tata Gardens around 10 am and were stopped by the Gamdevi police and Malabar Hill police as soon as they started to march.

Zoru Bhathena, a civic activist who was part of the march, said, the protest was aimed against land reclamation happening for the coastal road. “As we started to move, policemen who had gathered in large numbers stopped us for no reason. One officer said they had orders from above and when we asked for written proof, they refused to show us any.”

After the police threatened to use section 144 of the IPC (unlawful assembly), the protestors decided to disperse.

The citizens’ group claimed the land reclamation that was happening was illegal and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was reclaiming land that was not part of the coastal road.

“The BMC is not able to prevent roads from getting potholes. How can it be trusted with such large-scale reclamation? Instead of funding public transport projects like BEST, which desperately needs money, the civic body is encouraging us to use private transport,” said another protestor.

The 29.2 km-long coastal road will connect Marine Drive to Kandivli. Work for the project is in full swing since Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray performed its ground-breaking ceremony in December last year.