NGO volunteers stage rasta roko on Aarey Colony road

Irked with the poor maintenance of Aarey Milk Colony Road, nearly 400 volunteers of the Mumbai chapter of the NGO India Against Corruption (IAC) staged a rasta roko and stopped the toll collection along the stretch on Sunday. HT reports.

Irked with the poor maintenance of Aarey Milk Colony Road, nearly 400 volunteers of the Mumbai chapter of the NGO India Against Corruption (IAC) staged a rasta roko and stopped the toll collection along the stretch on Sunday.

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The Aarey Milk Colony Road that connects Goregaon to Andheri and Powai is ridden with potholes. The demands of the IAC activists include repairing the road in 15 days, installation of streetlights within two months and regular police patrolling along the stretch.

“The state government collects toll along this stretch regularly. Despite that, no measures are being taken to make the commute smooth for them. What is the point of paying the toll?” asked IAC coordinator Praful Vora.

While 200 volunteers gathered at the Goregaon end, 100 each were present at the Powai and Andheri end. The activists stopped the toll collection and blocked the road.

After four hours of protest, the engineers from the public works department (PWD) met the activists. They requested the volunteers to end their agitation and promised a meeting to address their concerns on Tuesday. While the volunteers agreed to end the rasta roko, they did not allow the toll collection to recommence.

“We will wait till Tuesday to see how the officers plan to alleviate the commuters’ woes. If they fail to come up with a concrete solution, our agitation will continue,” said Vora.

The public works department and animal husbandry department officials, who are responsible for supervising the toll plaza, were unavailable for comment.