Bogus structures on Coastal Road land raise concerns

The 100-odd tenements on reclaimed land abutting a retaining wall of the Coastal Road at Worli might seem like typical unauthorised structures in Mumbai — except they could be part of a calculated land-grab by builders to take control of prime real estate along the city's western seafront.

- Linah Baliga

MUMBAI:

The structures, erected recently at Markandeshwar Nagar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Nagar and Madraswadi in Worli, are now being demolished by the civic authorities on a complaint from an alert citizen. But activists suspect these slum-dwellers were brought here by developers, to get them declared as Project Affected Persons (PAPs), as phase one of the Coastal Road winds down to completion.

Rehabilitating these purported PAPs would, in turn, give developers access to prime land parcels on newly reclaimed land under the Coastal Road project.

The Rs 14,000-crore, eight-lane sea bridge, which currently extends from Marine Lines to Bandra West, has seen the creation of new land along Mumbai's western coast — 70 hectares reclaimed from the sea. While the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) developing the Coastal Road has reserved the land as open space, some are already staking claim to this coveted real estate, among the costliest in the world.

On Tuesday, ports and fisheries minister Nitesh Rane wrote to the municipal commissioner, demanding that the reclaimed land be transferred to his department so that it could be monetised. Rane backed down after an outcry from opposition leaders and citizens.