Bandra fort walkers fear landslide
Mumbai: The craggy hillside adjoining the walkway built behind Castella De Aguada, popularly known as the Bandra Fort, has left walkers worried about the possibility of landslide during the monsoon.
The walking track, built by the Mumbai Maritime Board (MMB), was inaugurated last year, and overlooks the Arabian sea. The hill is not covered with boulder nets, which is the usual practise to prevent loose rocks and boulders from falling on the road.
This has prompted residents to reach out to the local ward office to highlight their concerns.
Asif Zakaria, former Congress corporator from the area wrote to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ward office and Collector’s office highlighting this issue.
“The existing Fort is on a hillock with rocks and recently gradual landslide is being observed. The existing rocks are in a precarious condition with the fear that due to gradual landslide there could be an incident that the large rocks could collapse,” Zakaria wrote in a letter dated August 5.
“I regularly visit this area for my morning walk, and I have started to observe that the rocks and soil particles are sliding down. The walkway gets halfway covered with rocks and sediments due to the landslide. This is monsoon season, and this place is being frequented by large number of people now. This is dangerous,” Zakaria said, speaking to Hindustan Times.
Other residents who frequent the fort for their morning and evening walks have raised complaints about the possibility of a landslide. They claim that small rocks can be seen rolling down from the hillock on the pathway and pose a serious risk.
Benedict Soares, a local resident, and trustee of the Bandra Bandstand Resident’s Trust (BBRT) which maintains Bandstand Promenade said that the authorities need to act immediately to avert a big-scale disaster.
“Last month, we saw a building collapse at Malabar Hills due to a landslide. A similar incident can happen here if the situation is not dealt with urgently. Several residents have pointed out to me that small landslides are happening every day and now that monsoon is going on special care needs to be taken,” Soares said.
Vinayak Vispute, assistant municipal commissioner of the H/West (H/W) ward office, under whose jurisdiction this place falls said that his officers have already visited the spot and carried out a preliminary inspection.
“We understand the point of concern raised by residents and public representatives. The district collector’s office is responsible for maintenance of the periphery of the fort area. We will have written to them since this is a matter of concern and urge them to take necessary action. Meanwhile, the BMC will do what is necessary and provide all the required logistical support, whatever is necessary,” Vispute said.
Nidhi Choudhary, district collector of Mumbai suburbs said that the collector’s office is ready to build a retaining wall if it is required.
“I will forward this issue back again to the BMC so that a soil test could be done along with the Geographical Survey of India (GSI). Based on the report if they demand construction of a retaining wall our office will do so. This is also a new location as a recent survey of landslide-prone areas in Mumbai was carried out and this place was not in the list,” Choudhary said.
The Bandra fort is a Grade-I heritage structure maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and is located on a hillock. This Fort is flanked by two gardens over an area that spreads across 25,000 metre square.
Sign on to read the HT ePaper epaper.hindustantimes.com
