Mumbai: K
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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.
