Mumbai: Land belonging to locals below Lower Parel's Delisle Bridge opened for commute amid chaos

Amid the beginning of the demolition work of the Delisle Bridge at Lower Parel railway station on Tuesday, a 1600 square meter (sq mt) plot of land has come to the rescue of thousands of commuters, who were stranded in an overcrowded narrow lane near the station. Lower Parel station sees a daily footfall of 1.5 lakh people.

Meanwhile, a tiff ensued between the state authorities at around evening and the owner of the private land. The police was present in order to control a possible stampede like situation.

At 6 am on July 24, the authorities closed the Delisle road overbridge (ROB) by 8 am following which chaos reigned as peak hour began, and commuters started alighting at the Lower Parel station, and were headed to the lane below the bridge. The lane is connected to the exit of two foot overbridges (FOB) at the Lower Parel station.

When the overcrowded lot began entering from both ends, authorities had to take an immediate decision of creating an alternate exit to prevent any untoward incident. At around 8.15 am, a brick wall outside the exit of one of the FOBs was demolished, including the metal sheets that were covering the private land belonging to Aadi Developers, to create an alternative entry/exit point.

Authorities managed to salvage the situation and control the crowd of commuters while the locals — who would usually take the Delisle Bridge to travel between east and west — had no other option but to use the rail FOBs.

"We have been waiting for the redevelopment to happen for almost 15 years now. However nothing has moved forward as railways and government withdrew the NOC given to us citing laying of sixth rail line. Now all of a sudden they need our land and broke open the barricades. They could have simply requested us," said D Jain, developer and owner of Aadi Developers, which is redeveloping the plot.

By 4 pm, the developer and the local residents blocked the path again. They wrote to the local police asking them to prevent the opening of the private land. The police came to the spot and placated the locals requesting them to provide the space for public use.

"We were asked to keep the land available from 8 am to 10 pm," said Suryakant Narsale, resident of Devi Dharmdas Vani Chawl that existed on this plot. There are 70 families that have been displaced from this plot which is worth over Rs 25 crore.

ABOUT DELISLE BRIDGE

• The Delisle Bridge (or Lower Parel railway station bridge) has been in use since 1921. After a detailed inspection of the bridge by IIT Bombay, MCGM and Western Railway (WR), IIT Bombay recommended that in view of the safety of commuters, the bridge be closed and dismantled as soon as possible
   
• Accordingly, the WR has requested the complete closure of the bridge. Following this, from 6 am on 24 July, vehicular traffic and pedestrians will not be allowed to commute through the bridge,” said deputy commissioner of police and Mumbai police’s spokesperson Deepak Deoraj