New Road from Garodia Nagar to Eastern Express Highway

A new connecting road to the Eastern Express Highway was laid and quietly opened for traffic about a month ago.

This road is parallel to the EEH which connects the 90ft road (which we used to call as Driving school road as about 20 yrs ago this was used by driving school enterprises to train newbies) . The 90ft road starting from the Police Qtrs, Police colony adjoining Vallabh baug lane end where the Maharashtra State police Stadium is built. Leading upto the bridge over the nallah (gutter) joining Garodia Nagar / Nath Pai Nagar to Pestom Sagar.

The New road is built over the waste land swamp which is running parallel to the highway & connects at the end of this bridge. The earlier service road , right at the start of Pushpa Vihar Hotel to the EEH was just a temporary walkway made by the many people who used to stay in Kamraj Nagar. Slowly this road was encroached upon by the vegetable sellers which has now become a big but illegal market for the poor people.

There were attempts made to make this service road a permanent road with many politicians using it as bait for garnering votes, but the local RTO & due to the fact that many people had lost their lives crossing the EEH, and vehicular accidents it was only tarred for walking purpose. The road was used nevertheless by the people and car , rickshaw drivers as a short cut.

The 90ft service road (not to be confused with the other 90ft road which starts from Meghraj Hotel signal to Shivaji Technical school,) has many new buildings on either side, the complex being called Sudha Park, & is now made of concrete. Rickshaw Drivers Unions have  been using this road without proper permission for parking more than 200 Rickshaws on either side of the road.

The nuisance created by the rickshaw drivers is less said the better , most of them using the walls of the nearby buildings for urinating, spitting paan residue, washing their clothes and repairing their vehicles. This has created lot of hardships for the residential people mostly ladies who are subjected to eve teasing & constant stares of these drivers & vagabonds. Walking has become a nightmare on this junction as cars come from all directions and also the BEST Bus 404.


Squatters  have made the bridge , swamp opposite the Holy Family School, Rerhi Bunder road  their homes, they squat all over the place , some segregating garbage , leaving trash not useful to them on the roads. With urine & shit all over the place walking the bridge , road becomes difficult ,coupled with  the new problem of the vehicles, which virtually makes this area a death trap.

Hope the Local Corporator / MLA / MP along with BMC , Local police & RTO make some arrangements to ease the problems faced by the little children & people who walk on this road soon.

Garodia Nagar road Tar work (Dambar)

The New Year began with some good news, the road resurfacing with tar in Garodia Nagar. This again is not for the entire colony only the main route, that is from Police Chowky (Devang bldg) to Sati Kripa shopping center & further down to Mamta Hospital.

The question that arises is what is the point of putting tar on the surface area, whereby it has increased the height of the road to such an extent that most of the building compound level is much lower which will aggravate the water logging in the buildings. It was earlier brought to the notice of the corporator that any future road work has to be done keeping in mind that the level of the road is always at par or little lower from the buildings compound floor. So to see the work walked to a nearby building and clicked the photographs



The work is shoddy, without proper supervision or logical understanding as to how it should be done. The sand smoothing of the road is very badly done & i am quite sure with the first rains the surface will be damaged. The slope for the water to flow to the drain holes is also not done properly, the gutter holes are blocked with tar & this will keep water on the roads rather than draining it.

All through a very shoddy work, which really make us realise that this is again election gimmick.

Garden Opposite Garodia Palace
The garden opposite Garodia Palace was being relaid with new tiles & walkway , new compound walls, planting of new saplings and beautification. It has been days now but does not look like the work is completely over , this again is shoddy work to say the least, though the walls have been painted appreciating Mr Prakash Mehta for his help.

6o feet road

Walking the other day on 6o feet road , felt sorry to see the mess that has been made with the new paver block work of the best road that Ghatkopar east had. The paver blocks have been put in such clumsy & uneven way that one now has to be looking down all the time while walking & tripping over couple of times is for sure. Spare a thought for the senior citizens & also little children with vehicles passing by at high speed.

Overall the Ghatkopar East PWD work of the BMC is not being monitired nor the citizens have even bothered to take a stand against the wasteful manner in which the BMC is blowing away the tax payers money.

This then is the story of Ghatkopar East, where not many are ready to raise a stand & question authorities or their chosen candidate (MP / MLA / Corporator).

Ghatkopar Cama Lane Traffic Problem

Last night had an invite to the musical show of a good friend in Garodia, the show was at Bhuriben Hall Ghatkopar west at turn of the one way road coming from vidhya vihar Fatima Church to Ghatkopar Station. It was start time at 6.45 .

We asked the regular stand guy and pat came the reply that "saab don't go that way as it is totally jammed due to the coneretisation of the road at Cama Gully, SNDT college lane" . Not knowing what next to do, we got into non regular rickshaw guy and he said ok, so took a chance but no luck. The jam had come till the Standard Chartered Bank on 60 feet road. Luckily we did not go in the lane and took it to Patel Chowk near the near the station. Well then had no choice but to walk all the way from Samrat hotel to LIC building to the East - West bridge , took the lane from the jain temple to SNDT college and then walk right from the pipe line to the hall.

Now this is very annoying considering the fact that the traffic is bad on this route both going to west from Cama lane and coming from the Ghatkopar telephone exchange lane or from Fatima High school.

Last year it was the lane behind which was dug up and conceret put, almost 6 months it took and the trouble one had to take in the long jam was horrendous on the pocket as well to all the vehicle owners, and the amount of precious fuel and foreign exchange that we loose .

The sad part is that not many use thier common sense when they drive or come thorugh here , take the case of the traffic police they will only come when the jam has taken a bigger scale , either 3/4 of them will stand at one place and punish the bikers or rickshaw wala for taking a turn left or right and fine them, all they could do is to spread out, one at the SNDT college gate end to regulate from Fatmia school to left or from cama lane to Fatima school or right to exchange or station, one can stand at he Paramkeshav baug hall to see that there is no over taking or coming into the oncoming lane, though they stand on and off but it is not regular and thats when all the trouble starts.

The traffic has increased 100 folds but nothing much can be done as the roads are very narrow, the widening of the bridge over the railway tracks did help to ease the congestion, but with the street vendors all over the roads, the walk way on the bridge is blocked by useless characters watching the girls , mostly they are chain snatchers who take the right oppourtunity to steal and run. Many a friend of mine have faced this problem yet the Chirag nagar police station will not do much when you go to complain.

Hopefully the road work should be over before the exams starting next month SSC, HSC Schools final exams, as this could make the lives miserable for the children who are under lot of stress during the exam period.

• Cama Lane SNDT College Paramkeshav Baug Tilak Bridge Ghatkopar West Chirag Nagar