The BMC has proposed to build the city’s largest park on the lines of New York’s Central park by reclaiming 300 acres off Cuffe Parade. The BMC claims it will be a recreational park and will give Mumbai the much required green cover in South Mumbai. The idea is to create a world class recreational facility, which will take almost a decade to complete even after the required permissions are received and proposals are accepted. The area under question is the already existing breakwater at Cuffe Parade which can naturally be made into a garden.
Activists and residents have criticized this move saying that the garden, if built, will cater to only a few people without really being accessible to the larger public. Mumbai as a city seems to be growing by leaps and bounds towards the north and so even if something like this should be undertaken it would be wiser to have this park somewhere towards the North of Mumbai and not at the absolute southern tip of the city. Colaba already has its fair share of open garden space with the Colaba woods and the CPRA greens. This move will also affect the property prices in this area sending them sky rocketing with the added attraction of this park.
People are also apprehensive and skeptical about the corruption that is bound to go on in the guise of this project and the problem of slum encroachment which seems to be a major problem in Mumbai.
Agreed that open spaces and greenery is required in this city of ours which has become a concrete jungle but the existing parks and open spaces that we have are barely maintained and are definitely not being used to their full potential. Maybe we should concentrate on reviving these plots of land and maintaining them rather than going in for this mega new project that requires reclaiming land from the sea. The cost of this will run into thousands of crores of rupees, years of work and construction and a nuisance value to the residents of the area till it is completed.
This project though sounding good and noble on paper does not seem to be a very practical one and on weighing the pros and cons of the project one feels that maybe this is not something that Mumbai needs to spend the tax payers money on right now.
[ Via : Hindustantimes ]
