17 shopkeepers held for protesting against diversion

More than 100 shopkeepers from Andheri (West) protested after the vehicular traffic between JP Road, near Navrang cinema and SV Road junction, was diverted to commence the work on the Metro Rail project on Saturday.

The shopkeepers blocked the road and did not allow the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) workers to start with the construction work. The DN Nagar police detained 17 men from the group and released them after a warning.

The shopkeepers who claimed that their business would be hampered due to the traffic diversion, protested against the project by staging a rasta roko. According to them, the MMRDA authorities had promised to start the work on the Metro Rail only after the shopkeepers were rehabilitated. “We were not even intimidated that they are commencing with the work. They put barricades on the road on Friday night and diverted the traffic,” said Inder Pal Singh, who owns a cycle shop on the road.

A jewelry shop owner said that their business would suffer due to the traffic diversion. “It’s as good as pulling our shutters down. Our shops have been blocked and we would have no customers due to this,” he added.

The MMRDA authorities however said that rehabilitation of the shopkeepers will only happen when the road will be widened after the metro rail work comes to an end. “We haven’t touched their shops at all. The barricading has been done on the road for a public project and all the shopkeepers were aware about the project details,” said MMRDA’s joint commissioner, Ashwini Bhide adding that the shopkeepers are just raising an irrelevant point.

Meanwhile the police have deployed heavy bandobast in the area to avoid any further tension. “We have our men patrolling the area so that the work on the project continues without disturbance,” said assistant commissioner of police Dilip Suryavanshi.