It has been more than 30 days and citizen activists protesting against the 23-storeyed robotic parking tower outside Matunga Central railway station are still awaiting a response to their RTIs.
They filed the requests seeking the number of existing parking spaces near the station and a copy of the no-objection certificate from the Mumbai Fire Brigade.
Sources said that BMC Chief Engineer (Roads and Traffic) Girish Nikam has invited the activists to another discussion on Monday to answer their queries. In the last meeting, the BMC failed to provide documents on-record, which should be in the public domain mandatorily.
Activist Chetan Trivedi, who has filed the RTIs, said, “I have physically visited the Building Proposal (BP) Department and the fire brigade office. I got response from BP Department, who have asked me to provide CS number of the plots to tell the number of parking spaces. The BMC is unable to give us any clear answer and is shifting responsibility from one department to another. While the deputy chief fire officer said reply to my RTI is being processed.”
The fire brigade had earlier said that as the plot where the project is planned does not have a city survey number as per the Development Plan, the copy of the NOC is not available in the system.
Notably, the BMC gave the work order in 2023 before the required NOCs, including that from the railways, which was obtained in 2024. The BMC also awarded the contract through an offline system, which has further irked citizen activists. Moreover, the cramped space outside railway station, where the parking tower is planned, does not have a city survey number.
“It is a Rs 126 crore project, made out of taxpayers’ money. Why was the contract awarded offline, and that too without suggestions / objections from citizens?” trustee of Petition Group, GR Vora, said. The Petition Group was the first to officially protest against the project calling it a safety hazard. “We submitted our queries to BMC and Railways in November and still awaiting official response to our letter,” Vora said.
The Petitions Group has also written to the local BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar and local Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai to scrap the project. “Kolambkar has been telling us to suggest another plot for the parking tower,” Vora said.
