Thirty-eight-year-old Masjid Bunder resident Aslam Malkani winces at the mention of redevelopment. Born and brought up in the area, Mr. Malkani says it will be impossible to overhaul the choked lanes sandwiched between dilapidated buildings in his Assembly constituency, Mumbadevi, one of the six segments in Mumbai South.
The crumbling buildings, congested settlements and failure of the authorities to improve living conditions are likely to play a crucial role in the voters’ decision. In Mumbadevi, sitting MLA Amin Patel of the Congress is gearing up to contest against Shiv Sena’s Pandurang Sakpal and nine others.
“If you visit the alleyways in my area, you may throw up. There is a lot of illegal construction and the lack of space means that vehicles are parked on the roads. One cannot escape traffic snarls. Even the fire brigade and ambulances have a tough time to make way,” Mr. Malkani says. He thinks the neglect over several years has made redevelopment a dead-end. “People can make many promises, but the condition of the area is such that there is no turning back.”
At Machhimar Nagar in Cuffe Parade, in the Colaba constituency, Damodar Tandel (69) has a similar reaction to the ‘R’ word. “We live in beautiful row houses. Why should we need redevelopment?” Mr. Tandel, president of the Akhil Maharashtra Machchimar Kruti Samiti, asks.
He says the builders’ lobby is trying hard to penetrate the area by putting up hoardings and setting up offices. “We are Kolis (fisherfolk). We cannot sustain our work by living in buildings somewhere else.” He says there are government curbs on redevelopment of the area, but builders don’t pay any heed to them.
In Colaba, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Rahul Narwekar against the Congress’s Bhai Jagtap.
Redevelopment is such a hot button issue in Mumbai South that the Nationalist Congress Party’s Worli candidate, Suresh Mane, contesting against the Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray, has drafted a manifesto solely with a focus on redevelopment of BDD chawls, Worli Koliwada, Dhobi Ghat and SRA clusters.
Mumbai South is also at the centre of many controversial projects like the Coastal Road, the Shivaji memorial in the Arabian Sea and the underground Metro 3.
Mr. Tandel says, “No one has dared to utter anything about the Shivaji memorial this time. But the Coastal Road project has a strong opposition from our community.” He says Machhimar Nagar has a voter base of 7,000 and the Koli community has a much higher voter base overall in Mumbai South.
