chaityabhoomi – The Metrognome

As the city gears up for annual Chaityabhoomi rendezvous at Dadar, know the routes to take and avoid when commuting.

It’s tough to commute by road as crowds of Dalit devotees have already converged on Chaityabhoomi and Dadar, for the December 6 observance of Dr BR Ambedkar’s death anniversary. If you’re going to take the road to work or home, the Mumbai Traffic police want you to know which roads to take and which ones to avoid. Keep this list with you and know which roads to duck and where you can park, among other things:

ONE WAY/CLOSURE OF ROADS

– SK Bole Road will be one way from Siddhivinayak Junction up to Hanuman Temple, i.e. no entry from Hanuman Temple.
– Bhavani Shankar Road will be one way from Hanuman Temple/Kabutar Khana up to its junction with Gokhale Road South, i.e. no entry from Gokhale Road South viz. Gopinath Chavan Chowk except BEST buses and emergency utility services.
– SVS Marg from Siddhivinayak junction up to Hinduja Hospital will be closed for vehicular traffic. Local residents can go up to Road No 5, i.e. Pandurang Naik Marg junction from Hinduja Hospital.
– Ranade Road will be closed for all types of vehicular traffic.
– Dnyaneshwar Mandir Road will be closed for all types of vehicular traffic from its junction with SVS Road up to Dadar Chowpatty.
– If necessary, vehicular traffic except BEST buses and emergency and utility services will be closed from Dadar TT.
– Kataria Road will be closed for vehicular traffic from LJ Road up to Hinduja Hospital.
– SVS Marg from Mahim junction up to Kapad Bazar (Shitaladevi Road) junction will be closed for vehicular traffic.
– All heavy vehicles, goods vehicles including tempos except BEST buses will be diverted from Mahim junction via Mori Road towards Senapati Bapat Road.

In case of heavy traffic congestion at and around Shivaji Park, the advisory is as under:

SOUTH-BOUND TRAFFIC

Vehicular traffic coming from Western Express Highway and proceeding towards South Mumbai shall go up to Kalanagar junction, take a left turn to proceed to Dharavi T junction to Sion Station or 60 feet Road, Dharavi via Kumbharwada to Sion Hospital and take right turn to BA Road. Commuters can also use the Rajiv Gandhi Sea link via Bandra to Worli and proceed further.

NORTH-BOUND TRAFFIC

– North-bound vehicular traffic coming from Colaba and CST may use P D’mello Road, Barrister Nath Pai Marg, Zakeria Bunder Road, RAK Marg up to Matunga Arora bridge, then take right turn along Dr BA Road, and further on via Sion Hospital junction. Or, they may take a left turn at Gafarkhan junction on Dr Annie Besant Road for Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link and further to the suburbs.
– North-bound vehicular traffic coming from Mahalaxmi Railway Station via Dr E Moses Road may use Senapati Bapat Road.

PARKING RESTRICTIONS

Parking restrictions will be imposed from 20.00 hrs on 05/12/2012 till 21.00 hrs on 07/12/2012 on either sides of these roads:

– SVS Road.

– Ranade Road

– NC Kelker Road

– Kelusker Road (South), Kelusker Road (North)

– LJ Road

– Gokhale Road (South), Gokhale Road (North)

– Kataria Road

– Tilak Bridge

– SK Bole Road

– Bhavani Shankar Road

PARKING SPACE

Cars can be parked at Senapati Bapat Marg and Five Garden.

Source: Mumbai Traffic Police.

(Picture courtesy kemmannu.com)

Indu Mill land issue heats up

Dalit organisations warn of forcible occupation of Indu Mill land, Government says final decision will be taken before December 6.

by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

December 6 is a special date for dalits across the country – on this day, lakhs of dalits make the pilgrimage to Chaityabhoomi to pay homage to Dr BR Ambedkar. This week, as the city’s security personnel gear up for the rush of pilgrims, there is another issue likely to create a ruckus in Mumbai – the handover (or not) of the Indu Mill land for a memorial dedicated to Dr Ambedkar.

The issue is about 10 years old. Dalit organisations in Maharashtra, primarily the Republican Party of India (RPI) and the Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh, have been demanding that 12.5 acre of Indu Mill land at Dadar be handed over to them for the building of the Ambedkar memorial, however the Centre and the State have not yet taken a decision on the same. Two days ago, nine dalit organisations in the State declared their intention to come together and fight for the land – they have demanded that the land be handed over before December 6 this year, or else they would forcibly occupy it.

To this, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has assured that a final decision would be taken before December 6. Last year, dalit organisations had forcibly occupied the land for two weeks, before the State managed to pacify them.

Chavan had a meeting with Anand Sharma, Union Cabinet Minister in charge of Commerce, Industry and Textiles, in New Delhi, yesterday. After the meeting, Chavan said, “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved of the idea of erecting a memorial on the Indu Mill land, in principle. Naturally, there is no legal issue that we need to sort out. The Centre and the State will see to it that there is no legal hassle in erecting the memorial at the site. However, I urge all parties concerned to not politicise this issue.”

The twist in the tale is that the land is currently in the possession of National Textile Corporation (NTC), which is reluctant to hand over the land to the State Government, citing that it wants a compensation to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore. The State has countered this by saying that the compensation would not exceed Rs 1,000 crore. After the meeting today, Sharma said, “The memorial will certainly be constructed, but we are in the last stages of sorting out the transfer issue. This is why the final decision has taken some time.” The Central Government wants to keep the ownership of the land, while the State is willing to develop the memorial on it.

Chavan said that the technical issues regarding the reservation of the land and the question of how to make changes to the reservation had caused delays in the final decision. Both he and State Home Minister RR Patil have urged leaders to exercise restraint. Meanwhile, it is learnt that Patil is reviewing security arrangements for December 6 in the light of this development.