Sunday, December 5, 2010

Development works as per contractors' convenience?

Development works as per contractors' convenience?
Development works are a must for each city to provide the best services to its residents. Even though they are welcome but residents expect minimum inconvenience because of them.
In the months of March-April, redevelopment and concretisation of road from Shivaji Chowk to Arenja Corner was taken up by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and now it is being done on the opposite lane. The work had then created a great problem for not only residents of sectors 16 and 17 but also affected all Navi Mumbaikars. The reason was simple. This is the link road for all buses coming from Thane, Kalyan, Mumbra, Nerul, CBD Belapur, Kharghar, Kalamboli and Panvel to enter Vashi and move towards Koper Khairane, Ghansoli, Airoli and Mumbai. Each day more than 200 buses use this stretch at least three times a day and lakhs of working people travel through buses on a daily basis to earn their livelihoods.
This stretch is along Sector 17 of Vashi, which is also known as District Business Centre. Thousands of people have to use the temporary bus stop on busy Palm Beach Road.
Moreover at the perpendicular side of the road there is St Lawrence High School and just at a distance of 25 meters is the KBP College. Till now there was no problem as it was vacation time. From this week, vacations are going to end and the rush of children will start. These kids would now be facing the danger of crossing the busy Palm Beach Road.
Social Worker Inderjeet Singh, "This road has three layers. The first one is used as parking, second is used for vehicles coming from Vashi towards Panvel and the third is being developed where vehicles come from Panvel and other areas towards Vashi. If the road which is presently used for the parking purpose is temporarily converted into the road for vehicles passing from Vashi towards Panvel, then the second road can be utilised for vehicles coming from Panvel towards Vashi. This is an easy task as this will affect hardly 50 vehicles which are parked here in day time. This is the only solution that will end the threat and inconvenience faced by lakhs of people."
Vijay Walunj, resident of Sector 16 allege, "If NMMC would have undertaken redevelopment work of both the sides simultaneously, residents would have been spared the inconvenience twice within 2-3 months. The corporation works without proper time management and schedules its works as per contractors' convenience."
—Jaspal Singh Naol

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