Borivli hawker menace: BMC clears the road, when will BEST resume services?

The authorities crack down on hawkers at Bhaji Market Gully in Borivli West on November 29. Pic/Nimesh Dave

Despite the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) uprooting hawkers who had occupied Bhaji Market Gully in Borivli West for more than a decade, buses, which had to be diverted owing to the menace, are yet to ply the stretch. Residents and transport experts said a delay in resuming bus services could result in hawkers eventually reclaiming the spot. The civic body was spurred into action after a series of reports by mid-day prompted the State Human Rights Commission to take suo motu cognisance of the matter.

Transport experts and Borivli residents have urged the BEST to immediately restore its bus services on the court lane. The services were diverted to Chandavarkar Road a few years back due to hawkers encroaching on the entire road making it even impossible to walk on, causing chaos and congestion at Chandavarkar Road and SV Road signal.

After the anti-encroachment drive, the transport body is reluctant to revive the original routes. During the suo motu hearing of the matter by the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission, the counsel for the BEST replied in the affirmative to questions posed by the commission as to whether the BEST would be able to restart its services after the civic body acted against hawkers. But this is yet to happen.

ResidentSpeak

Helen Fonseca, an ex-Juvenile Justice Board member, said, "The BEST's delay in resuming bus services will only help hawkers. They wouldn't dare return if there were continuous traffic flow. The BEST's failure to restart services will encourage hawkers to come back."

Sudesh Naik, another resident, said, "Hawkers had no right to take our roads from us. Now that the BMC is acting against them, it is the responsibility of the BEST to restore its services immediately. Otherwise, these hawkers will eventually return in full force. If this happens, the BEST will be as responsible for their return as the BMC."

The authorities crack down on hawkers at Bhaji Market Gully in Borivli West last week. Pic/Nimesh Dave

He added, "To make the BMC's temporary solution permanent, the BEST should immediately restart its services here."

Another resident said, "Since the diverted buses also run on the Chandavarkar Road, the traffic load at the junction increases substantially causing a bottleneck and heavy traffic congestion during peak hours. If the BEST restores diverted services to Bhaji Market Gully, the traffic situation at the junction will improve. Now, we can see some odd motorists using the Bhaji Market Gully Road instead of Chandavarkar Road as the BMC is taking action against the hawkers."

Jagdeep Desai, architect, academician and transportation analyst said, "As BEST routes 244, 246 and 277 were diverted due to illegal hawkers occupying the road, it is incumbent on the BEST to restart them immediately. This will serve multiple purposes. Passengers will get relief, congestion on Chandavarkar Road will be eased and illegal hawkers will be prevented from returning easily. Roads and carriageways are for vehicles while footpaths are for pedestrians. Hawkers are not special entities to take away citizens' rights."

A V Shenoy, senior transport expert with Mumbai Mobility Forum said, "BEST should immediately restore the services. For passengers, this will be beneficial in the long run. Generally, share auto drivers take undue advantage of passengers due to diverted bus routes. A week or two after the BMC takes action, hawkers come back. But if the undertaking resumes services on the road, vendors will be discouraged from returning to Bhaji Market Gully."

‘Will take time'

Ramesh Madhvi, chief transport manager, BEST, said it would take some time to resume the services. "We will need to check several things such as whether the number of buses needs to be increased if services are restored on this road. We need some time to work out the logistics and see if the commute time would increase [if the services were brought back]. If the time of commute even increases by 30 minutes, the number of duties increases."

Reacting to this, a transport expert said, "The chief transport manager's statement reveals that BEST has not even started thinking about resuming the services. If the transport manager says that they need to check if the commute time is going to increase, it means he is not even aware of his own route layouts. If they had started working on restoring the route, the transport manager would have already known that the road is just next to Chandavarkar Road at a walking distance of not even two minutes."

BEST General Manager, Anil Diggikar did not reply to mid-day's calls and messages by press time.

Nov 29
Day BMC launched anti-encroachment drive

3
No. of bus routes altered owing to the hawker menace