Residents of Mumbai save beach from encroachment

MUMBAI: For the second time in three months, vigilant residents of Juhu saved a significant part of their beach from what they said was an encroachment attempt. The BMC demolished the offending structures on Wednesday.
Residents had observed that a developer was erecting steel columns and cross members to barricade a substantial portion of the beach in front of his property.
“The developer didn’t have BMC permission to construct. We had issued a stop-work notice on Tuesday and they continued with their work. The encroachment was steel I-sections that covered the beach space and we demolished it,” said Vijay Balamwar, deputy municipal commissioner.
Architect P K Das said the developer had deployed a large contingent of security guards to protect the structure from demolition.
“The BMC, in the presence of the police, deployed a large number of personnel and gas-cutters to remove the structure. A JCB had to be deployed to excavate and remove the concrete foundations spread over an area of 12 ft by 200 ft,” said Das.
The developer said he had not received any stop-work notice from the BMC.
“There is no question of encroachment,” he said. “The poles erected were just a temporary measure as I wanted to rebuild my boundary wall and they were erected for protection. These would have been removed in 10 days.”
Ashoke Pandit, convenor of Save Open Spaces and a Juhu resident, said the columns had come up overnight.
“There were bouncers to scare citizens, but when we spoke to Rakesh Maria, the police commissioner, a police squad was sent and the BMC, too, arrived on time. The developer even tried to call me to give an explanation. The BMC should file an FIR against the builder. The developer wants to demolish a bungalow and construct a new building by encroaching on the beach,” Pandit said.