10 villages oppose proposal for Manori-Marve sea link

About 800 villagers from 10 villages across the Gorai-Uttan belt held a public rally on Thursday to protest against the proposed Manori-Marve sea link.

About 800 villagers from 10 villages across the Gorai-Uttan belt held a public rally on Thursday to protest against the proposed Manori-Marve sea link.

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Social activist Medha Patkar and socialist politician ND Patil were also present at the rally.

The proposed sea link, to be constructed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), is a 500-meter bridge across the Manori Creek, built on the lines of the Bandra -Worli sea link.

The bridge aims at cutting travel time and traffic congestion between Gorai and Bhayander on the Western Express Highway up to half hour along with providing easy access to Marve.

“This bridge will destroy marine life, which is a major income source for locals,” said Joseph Gonsalves, a resident of Gorai-Uttan and chairman of The Dharavi Bet Bachao Sangharsh Samiti.

“In 2006, we were able to stall the Pan India Paryatan Ltd SEZ that would have affected over 1.25 lakh of our villagers. Now we are preparing for this new protest,” said Lourdes D’Souza, secretary of the agitating group.

D’Souza said they learnt about the proposed sea link only through newspapers and were shocked that the residents’ concerns were not taken into consideration.

“We have asked the MMRDA commissioner for details, but he said the project was still in the proposal stage. We want to oppose it right from the beginning,” she said.