SunCorp

With its slew of restaurants, trendy lounge bars and glitzy shopping malls, Bandra (west) may seem to be light years away from the badlands of Bihar. Yet, behind the ostentatious facade of this prime western suburb is the growing civic lawlessness, which has resulted in gross violations of basic town planning norms and a gradual destruction of traditional heritage enclaves here.

Over the past decade, citizen activists and old time residents of Bandra have consistently complained about the thriving nexus between the BMC and the land mafia (supported by some politicians) that has led to haphazard development in this once peaceful suburb.
    Multi-storeyed shopping centres have mysteriously sprung up without the mandatory setback space on congested roads and highrise apartment blocks have been allowed to come up dangerously close to century-old bungalows in protected gaothans (village) like Ranwar. In Pali village—a proposed heritage precinct—a cement-concrete building has blatantly encroached upon part of the narrow lane and touches the street electric pole.
    On Turner Road (now renamed Guru Nanak Marg) itself, about eight graceful bungalows have disappeared in the last 10 years. One of the grandest and spacious mansion to be sold here belonged to the family of erstwhile billiards champion Michael Ferreira. It gave way to a swanky residential tower.
    Elsewhere in Bandra, there are stories about families living in cottages being bullied and threatened to move out by unscrupulous builders. Many feel that the several cases of senior citizens found murdered inside their huge bungalows in Bandra-Khar are attributed to the land mafia. “There are gangsters masquerading as political activists in Bandra, who are into this racket,’’ said one resident.
    “Rules are for fools,’’ laughed Neil Pereira, sitting inside his quaint150-year-old bungalow in the ancient Pali village, now surrounded by what can only be described as highrise monstrosities. A fire brigade engine or an ambulance can never hope to enter this precinct. “Complaints to the local BMC office never evoke any response. It is only now with the Right to Information Act that we manage to get some feeble reaction,’’ he said.
    The East Indian Residents Association of Pali Gaothan recently wrote to the heritage committee chairman Sharad Upasani, “This whole area is now being rapaciously overdeveloped by completely unscrupulous and politically-connected builders. They are acquiring properties under all kinds of pretext and bringing down beautiful bungalows to build multi-storeyed monstrosities in our tiny lanes. We ask your help in preserving our gaothan and declare it as a heritage precinct.’’
    Early this year, some Pali village residents along with prominent citizens filed a public interest litigation in the
Bombay high court against illegal construction activity, which is a “conspiracy among the owner/builder and officials of the BMC and other competent authorities’’.
    “The petitioners state that some of the lanes of the gaothan are so narrow that two people cannot walk side by side. Notwithstanding the same, concrete buildings with elevator shafts and balconies have suddenly come up...despite municipal officials knowing about the said constructions, nothing is being done by them, and all this construction is being carried out under their nose and presumably with their permission and support.’’
    Like Pali, Ranwar is one of the original 24 hamlets of Bandra going back to the early 1700s. But unabated construction over the past decade-and-a-half has seen several of the old-style bungalows with red Mangalore tiles on the roof being pulled down. A couple of years ago, Vincent D’Cruz (name changed on request) finally decided to move out of his bungalow in Ranwar after a building came up in front of his property.
    “This trend is inevitable given the cost of real estate. There is monetary coercion on local residents to sell their ancestral property. Today, Ranwar is surrounded by multi-storeyed structures,’’ he said.
    What used to be a peaceful enclave has now turned into a nightmare due to vehicular congestion after the traffic police opened up a tiny Ranwar lane into a main thoroughfare that leads to Bandra Reclamation. “Imagine, it is difficult
to even cross the street,’’ added D’Cruz. Locals observed that 20% of the 600 old houses in Ranwar have been razed over the last 10 to 15 years.
    “Life in gaothans is all about identity, a scale of life which was easier and a good sense of belonging. This essence should not go away even if outsiders come into heritage precincts like Ranwar. But today one tends to get lost among the high rises that have been proliferating in these areas,’’ said heritage architect David Cardoz. But Cardoz explained that anything old does not necessarily mean beautiful. “Development is inevitable. But it is mindless development, which mainly means high rise, high tech and big money, to which old Bandra is losing out to,’’ he added.