‘MMRDA has to shift Bandra's metro station, bear costs as per CM’s diktat’

MMRDA will have to follow the CMrsquos order and move the planned Metro station back to its original site no matter what the cost Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar assured local residents who were restless in the absence of a formal announcement by MMRDA The CM last week directed the MMRDA boss to take measures after Shelar sought his intervention to save Sadhu Vaswani Garden from the moveShelar the president of BJPrsquos Mumbai unit met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Metropolitan Commissioner of MMRDA S V R Srinivas on March 2 to discuss the residentsrsquo concerns regarding the development authorityrsquos plan to move a station on the Metro 2B corridor Shinde had told Srinivas to take appropriate action in this regardThe MMRDA however is yet to publicly announce its stand to resolve the National College Metro station shifting controversy Shelar however has assured residents that the reshifting will happen even if the planning agency has to bear a lossMLA Ashish Shelar speaks to residents of Tata Blocks at Sadhu Vaswani Udyan on Sunday PicShadab KhanldquoI already met the CM and it had been made clear that the station was shifted discreetly without notifying or consulting either the residents or even the elected representatives The residents brought this move to my notice The work on the station at the new location has already begun hence reshifting might be a little difficult and even lead to some losses however it was all MMRDArsquos mistakerdquo Shelar saidPushing the ball in MMRDArsquos court he added ldquoI assure you nothing will happen to Sadhu Vaswani Garden and the MMRDA will have to resolve the matter What MMRDA wants to do now and how is their problem as they did not inform us before deciding to shift the stationrdquoAlso Read Bandras metro station shift MMRDA points fingers at BMCAs per the earlier plan one of the two Bandra West Metro stations mdash National College mdash was to come up a little ahead of Tata Blocks and nearby societies However the MMRDA moved the station site to HP junction which the residents feared would affect their only green space mdash Sadhu Vaswani GardenDr Shiraz Vazifdar a resident who has a gynaecology clinic on S V Road said ldquoThe meeting on Sunday has given a ray of hope to all the residents and stakeholders in the area Shelar was affirmative about the station reshifting from the HP junction We will have countless problems if the Metro station comes up here Most concerning factor is that Sadhu Vaswani Garden will be destroyed The station will block access to Tata Blocks permanently causing great inconvenience to the many senior citizens living in the Parsi colony They will have to take a detour of 1 km if they want to go to Nanavati hospital or anywhere in that direction It would also affect the entry of ambulances and fire engines in case of emergenciesrdquoldquoMy clinic is in the Deccan court building just next to the Shroff Eye hospital there will be huge traffic jams here They can shift the station towards Khar as the next one after National College is in Santacruz I dont think much work has been completed that they will incur any major loss It is still possible to shift the stationrdquo Dr Vazifdar addedRanjit Varde another resident said ldquoMLA Ashish Shelar has assured us that the station will be reshifted no matter what and we trust him We are thankful that the timely intervention of the elected representatives mdash Shelar and former corporator Swapna Mhatre mdash has saved our garden However we are yet to get any reply from the MMRDA confirming the same A station at the busiest HP junction will only create more traffic congestion in the areardquoAt the end of the meeting Shelar told the residents that he will take care of the rest and that they donrsquot have to worryMeanwhile the MMRDA continued to maintain that shifting the station back to the old location is not feasible They are still working out a resolution to protect the garden an official saidMarch 2Day BJP MLA Shelar met CM on the issue