Stepping up the fight against the Metro rail authorities, the JVPD residents of Juhu are plannning to go for a crowd-funding solution to bring to rest the ongoing legal battle at the Bombay High Court. Nearly Rs 30 lakh has already been shelled out to continue the fight. The amount was contributed by several local societies, schools and hospitals.
Anticipating the fight might now go to the Supreme court and require a lot of funds, the residents are appealing the masses for donations.
WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages have been prepared to spread the message and collect a huge fund.
“We have been received financial aid from local societies, schools and colleges. But the fight may go on for a long time. The matter may go to the Supreme Court, and hence we need money,” Paramjit Ghai, of JVPD association, said.
“We are going to write to the residential societies that even any donation of even Rs 50 or Rs 500 matters. We want some contribution from each and everyone. On Sunday, we had a meeting with all residents where we decided to go ahead with the plan,” Ghai added.
“The matter is in the court. We expect some relief from the court on Tuesday. Either way, the battle may go on for long, and we need money. We have requested societies from Juhu, Khar and Bandra to contribute at least Rs 500 that will enable us sustain this expensive legal battle,” Khar resident, Zafar Zaveri said.
The construction of Metro-2B has courted controversy after residents from Bandra, Khar and Juhu challenged the construction of Metro-2B elevated instead of underground. The residents have been claiming elevated Metro corridor will ruin their roads, and underground Metro corridor would be an ideal for their area.
The Bombay High Court has put a stay put on construction work, except that for utilities and conducting soil testing. The civil construction is being carried by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Deevlopment Authority (MMRDA)
The Metro-2B DN Nagar-Mandale corridor is 23.5-km-long and a part of the Metro-2 (Dahisar-Charkop-Bandra-Mandale). it was initially planned to be made underground, but later turned into an elevated corridor. The line was also divided into two parts: Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2A, DN Nagar-Mandale Metro-2B.
Residents of Juhu, Khar and Bandra are fighting legal battle against MMRDA over elevated construction of DN Nagar-Mankhurd Metro-2B corridor
The residents want the proposed Metro-2B corridor to be built underground
Elevated construction of the Metro will affect the Link Road and SV Road in terms of traffic jam and narrowing down of roads
Out of cash after spending almost Rs 30 lakh, the residents are now exploring the option of crowd funding.They are approaching local societies, hospitals and schools to donate funds
MMRDA, the agency building the Metro-2B, has said building the corridor underground will be costlier than compared to an elevated route. The Bombay High Court has put a stay put on construction work