Carter Road residents will have some extra space to stretch their legs. Plans are afoot to extend the promenade by 150 meters. An amount of Rs48 lakh would be spent from the MPLAD funds of Congress MP Priya Dutt and her party MLA Baba Siddiqui to build the stretch presently ending opposite the gate of the Buddhist cemetery.
The extension, proposed by the Khar-Bandra-Santacruz (KBS) Foundation, would also keep encroachers off the area.
“BMC has been trying to keep the land, belonging to Maharashtra Maritime Board, free of encroachers, but to no avail. There are garbage piles along the stretch, and a ragpickers’ colony in the vicinity. Now, with this extension of the promenade, things would change for the better,” said Renuka Tahiliani, member KBS Foundation.
For Navin Chandra, a Union Park resident and vice-chairman of the foundation, the existing promenade was getting too cramped for his daily walk. “The longer it is, the better,” he said.
The new stretch would have a permanent pavilion for celebrating Ganapati festival. There would be a study space for slum children, as well as a giant chess board for open-air chess sessions. The stretch would be illuminated with solar-powered lights.
“We are working on the logistics,” said Bharati Kakkad, secretary, KBS Foundation. However, the Bandra West Residents Association (BWRA), who gifted the existing promenade to the residents, was not a party to this extension plan. Anandini Thakoor, chairperson, KBS Foundation, said, “BWRA told us clearly that it was not interested in this project.”
