Residents of Bandra West have found further discrepancies in BMC’s plan for an underground parking space at Patwardhan Park. While response to an RTI query and a report by Mumbai Parking Authority claim only five trees are in the way of the project, residents say at least nine would need to go. Mid-Day on Monday reported a stark difference in the BMC’s plan for an underground parking plaza on a plot inside Patwardhan Park, next to Bal Gandharva Ranga Mandir. While the civic body had issued a tender for a three-storey parking facility, activist Zoru Bhathena got a map for a 13-story structure in response to his RTI query. Bhathena had sought details from the Garden Department of the BMC under the RTI Act.

“But this is not the first time that the BMC has revealed different plans in RTI. In 2018, when the BMC had decided to construct a parking lot beneath Patwardhan Park, the tender notice showed just half a plan. An RTI query later revealed that the civic body had planned to build a shopping plaza and restaurants in phase II,” Bhathena said. Residents and activists have been consistently opposing the proposed project, citing environmental damage. “What else can we citizens do, but protest and wait for the BMC to wake up,” said Indra Mohan Gupta, a resident of Bandra. The RTI query further revealed that the deputy chief engineer of traffic, in a letter to the Garden Department, said that they found five peltophorum (yellow flame) trees which may require re-plantation for construction of the parking lot.