In the communication gap between arms of the government, there has sprouted a clash of claims for the same chunk of land. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s coastal road plan slices under the same piece of land at Juhu-Moragaon where the fisheries has proposed a fish landing centre. According to the plans the location for the facility designed to serve the fishing community through construction of boatyard, sloping ramp, protection bund, and net mending shed overlaps with that of the tunnels proposed under the coastal road project. Deputy municipal commissioner, who is also in charge of the coastal road project, Rajeev Kuknoor, said, We are trying to find a solution to this issue. We are trying to understand if the state’s other department such as fisheries have proposed any plans of this plot. On Saturday, Kuknoor and a team of civic officials made a field trip to the spot to initiate a dialogue with fisherfolk and understand their concerns. On November 3, the fishermen held a detailed meeting with Kuknoor at his Worli office, and informed the BMC about the state’s competing plans for the same location. MB Gaikwad, state commissioner of fisheries, told Mirror that a resolution would be arrived at since the fishing centre is as crucial for the people as the coastal road. Yes, we had proposed a fish landing centre in Juhu-Morgaon. But both projects are important: one is a facility that will help fishermen with their livelihood, the other is key to commuting. We will find a way out of this problem. We will see if we can change the centre’s location while providing similar facilities for the community. He further said there was no need to panic: It’s our department’s duty to look after the betterment of the fishing community and to facilitate their job more and more. So we will find a way how to do a centre here. BMC has already asked for a no-objection certificate from the fisheries to build the coastal road. But fisheries commissioner Gaikwad said that they we will look into the project’s details before issuing any such NOC. Hussain Indorewala, assistant professor at the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi College of Architecture, who visited the Juhu-Moragaon site with Kuknoor on Saturday said, The costal road’s most destructive part is landing in front of the fishing village in Juhu- Moragaon. The way the road is planned, it will not cause much inconvenience to residents of Juhu beach and Bandra. Most of the hardship will be faced by the fishing community, unless BMC conducts some sort of social impact assessment survey and provide them better facilities.
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