Mumbai: K
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Kamathipura
King's Circle
Nanalal D Mehta Garden
The Times of India, Aug 04 2016
How Mumbai gave itself a `walker's paradise'
A `walker's paradise' is what locals fondly call Mumbai's first garden under a flyover at King's Circle. Inaugurated in June, the Nanalal D Mehta Garden under the Tulpule flyover was built by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at a cost of Rs 5 crore. It includes a jogging track and several ornamental plants.
This was a unique concept driven by the initiative of the locals, who got BMC to design this 700-metre green space. This was at a time when most spaces under flyovers were either encroached upon by vagrants or used to park vehicles.
King's Circle resident Nikhil Desai said, “It was Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority that had built the Tulpule flyover along with two other flyovers between King's Circle and Dadar. Around four years ago, when the flyovers were opened to the public, we saw that below each of the three flyovers there was either unauthorised parking, illegal shops operating or vagrants using the patch. We all were against it.“
He added, “Soon, we approached the then municipal commissioner, Sitaram Kunte.After studying our request, he asked the garden department if a garden there was possible. Tenders were floated, and today it's purely a walker's paradise with numerous people with their children coming here every evening.“
The garden's jogging track has been designed to depict the flow of the Narmada; the sitting space imitates ghats on that river.
Deputy municipal commissioner S S Shinde, who is in charge of gardens in Mumbai, said the feedback from the local residents has been very good. “But at present, there are no plans of designing any more green spaces under flyovers. In order to create such spaces we need to have a larger area. In case of Mehta garden it was possible as the space was big enough,“ said Shinde.
Kumbharwada
Metal market run by Marwaris
From: Dishank Purohit, Why Raj battle reverberates at a Mumbai metal market, December 2, 2018: The Times of India
A bustling metal bazar in Mumbai, Kumbharwada holds sway over the assembly election in Rajasthan’s Jalore district. Reason? Almost the entire market is run by Marwadis from Rajasthan. Therefore, major party candidates in fray have set up their poll offices and held rallies there to woo Rajasthani migrants.
According to Ratan Dewasi, Congress candidate from Raniwara constituency of Jalore district, there are several thousand people from his assembly seat who had migrated for work and settled in Mumbai. Many have shops in Kumbharwada market in the commercial capital of the country. Many migrants go to Rajasthan in hordes to cast their votes. Migrant voters settled in Mumbai, Chennnai, Bangalore and other cities, therefore, hold the key for political parties fighting polls in the region.
“On November 27, I held a rally in Mumbai where over 5,000 Rajasthan natives turned up. My appeal to them was that though they all were living far away from Jalore, they had families back in Rajasthan and it was my responsibility to improve their hometown,” Dewasi told TOI, adding that he had already travelled to Banglore and was going to Ahmedabad to speak to migrants living in Gujarat.
Harchand Samrani, a Jalore native and a Congress activist in Mumbai, told TOI over phone that apart from Dewasi, Congress candidate from Jalore’s Sanchore seat Sukram Bishnoi had also set up his campaign offices in Kumbharwada market area.
“Recently we held a Congress rally near Wilson state area. Every day we canvass for the Congress in Kumbharwada. There are over 5,000 shops of Marwadis. Many of them are residents of Jalore’s Raniwara, Bhinmal and Sanchore towns as well as Pali district,” Samrani said, adding that many youths from western Rajasthan were employed by these shop owners. He said scores of natives of Jalore were heading to Rajasthan in droves to cast their votes on December 7. Raniwara’s sitting BJP MLA Narayan Singh Dewal also has an office there. Dewal is in touch with his campaign managers in Mumbai. “People will come on trains and buses to cast their votes like every year,” an aide of the MLA said.
There are five constituencies in Jalore — Ahore, Jalore, Bhinmal, Sacnhore and Raniwara. Migrant workers living in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal and Maharashtra are a major vote bank in at least three seats — Sanchore, Bhinmal and Raniwara.
