Despite the slow progress of the cleaning and widening of Mithi River, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now start beautifying the banks of the river. The proposal costing of Rs 3 crore, which includes developing a garden and pathways, was cleared in the Civic Standing Committee meeting on Friday.
The beautification work includes growing a garden to beautify the landscape, pave a block road, build storm water drains, illuminate the area, installation of seats and dustbins, etc. The work will begin from Kurla's Kranti Nagar. The civic body has set a deadline of six months to complete it.
Leaders of the Opposition and corporators from Congress and Samajwadi Party had opposed the proposal. The Opposition leaders said that the cleaning, deepening, and widening of the river should be completed before any other work on it begins. If the river is not clean, what is the point of beautifying its banks, they questioned.
The proposal, however, was passed by Shiv Sena's Ramesh Korgaonkar, the Standing Committee Chairman. BJP group leader Manoj Kotak was also present at the meeting when the proposal was cleared.
Mithi is one of the city's longest river. The BMC and MMRDA took up the cleaning, deepening, and widening of it after the July 2005 deluge. The river had filled with silt, garbage, and sewage. Unfortunately, slum encroachments along the river have slowed down the progress of the work.
What’s on the list
The beautification work includes growing a garden to beautify the landscape, pave a block road, build storm water drains, illuminate the area, installation of seats and dustbins, etc. The work will begin from Kurla’s Kranti Nagar.
