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Everybody listens to a group
Garages on roads at Sion Koliwada always ignored individual complaints about filth, traffic jams and noise pollution caused by triple-parked vehicles, but agreed to address the issues when approached by a group .....GEETA DESAI When individual complaints failed to have the desired effect, residents of Sion Koliwada decided to get together and take on the garages in their neighbourhood that had made lives miserable for over three decades.
It seems to have had the desired effect, as garage-owners who earlier ignored them have agreed to discuss ways to solve their problems. The residents of buildings on Ram Milan Shukla Road have had to live with noise pollution and traffic jams all these years because of vehicles being triple parked outside the garages. The parked vehicles leave very little space for movement of traffic that includes BEST buses, resulting in jams every day during peak hours in the morning and evening. Several residents had complained to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the police but were allegedly ignored. Fed up of the apathy, a few young people concluded that the best way to tackle the problem would be to take on the garage-owners as a group. “We suffer noise pollution throughout the day, even on Sundays. Also, the garages dirty the roads while repairing vehicles,” alleges Ram Prakash, a resident of Laxman Nivas, which is the worst affected, as a majority of the repair activity takes place outside this building. “Parking is a major problem. Work in the garages goes on all day. They not only lead to traffic jams but also fatal accidents,” alleges Jayesh Karia, a resident of Jagdish Niwas. Sahil Doshi, the resident of Sameer building, alleges, “Students and women residents are harassed every day. If we complain, traffic authorities tow away our cars even if they are properly parked.” “The nuisance has affected our health and our social life,” says Sanjit Shukla, a resident of Kamal Kunj building. “Our complaints were ignored and even if authorities took some action, it was always cosmetic in nature. That is when we realised the need to work as a group.” A month ago, the residents met garage-owners in a group and managed to get their point across. One of the garage-owners, Tony Anand, who is co-operating with the residents, says, “We have been operating here for about 40 years. Customers wants us to carry out repairs and replace or fix accessories in their presence. So we have to do the job then and there. We agree residents face problems but we are trying to solve them through the forum set up by the youths. The process will take some time.” Local corporator Upendra Doshi says, “We have started repairing the footpaths on this road. There is a plan to put railings on both sides of the road and a divider. It will reduce the traffic jams during peak hours. But we need the co-operation of shopkeepers, who have agreed to the proposals after many years.” S K Karvande, BMC assistant commissioner, F-North, says, “We had fined these shopkeepers a few times following complaints from residents but we need the co-operation of traffic police to end the problem of triple parking.” Parked vehicles at these garages leave very little space for movement of traffic, resulting in traffic jams during morning and evening peak hours
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