In the fifties and sixties, and even until the eighties, the privileged residents of Cumballa Hill and Walkeshwar enjoyed their plush sea-facing homes that gave a bird’s eye view of the city in unmatched quietude. Not so anymore. Narrow ribbon lanes where old money nestled comfortably are now squeezed by traffic , and monstrous unplanned construction is threatening the quality of life in some of India’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.

D ward in south Mumbai is a region of extremes. On the one hand, it includes areas like Malabar Hill, Pedder Road, Walkeshwar and Altamont Road, which was ranked the 10th most expensive street in the world in 2008. And on the other hand, it includes the BIT tenements near Mumbai Central and the old chawls of Khetwadi with barely 2 feet of space separating the buildings. On the one hand, the ward is home to prominent citizens like Lata Mangeshkar and chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, leading tycoons like Mukesh Ambani, Pallonji Mistry, Adi Godrej, Sajjan Jindal, Ravi Ruia and Venugopal Dhoot, besides consular officials and the municipal commissioner. And on the other hand, it houses the sex workers of Kamathipura.

Privilege is written all over the undulating landscape of the western front of D ward. But the concentration of wealth in the narrow lanes of Malabar Hill and Pedder Road has its own perils. The most visible stress is that caused to traffic. “Several households own two or three cars, sometimes four, and old compounds do not have sufficient parking space. The situation is the same across VP Road and Girgaum, which have become extremely congested. Cars are parked overnight on both sides of the road, so our sweepers cannot clean the area properly,” says assistant municipal commissioner Parag Masurkar.

Several hospitals in the ward, including Saifee, Bhatia, Hurkisondas and Jaslok, are located in congested neighbourhoods. Since most of them do not allow visitors to drive in, the narrowest of roads witness double parking. “The diamond market, jewellery bazaar, steel and metal markets are located here. There are lanes in VP Road, Khetwadi and Opera House where one simply cannot walk without nudging fellow pedestrians ahead,” says municipal councillor Shantilal Doshi.

N P Yadav, president of the Tulsiwadi Tardeo Ganeshotsav Mandal, says, “The Tardeo-Haji Ali circle stretch is one of the worst traffic spots not just during peak hour but at all times. Recently, a child fell from the roof of our building, Maniyar Apartments, and it took 40 minutes to get her to Bhatia Hospital, which is barely three minutes’ drive away. There is a mall near Haji Ali junction and all traffic from Mahalaxmi that is headed for Pedder Road also takes a Uturn here, so this stretch is a nightmare to negotiate. I have been hearing of plans to widen the narrow road that starts at Sardar Pav Bhaji since my childhood and I wonder if that will ever happen.”

Masurkar says lakhs of motorists who travel between north and south Mumbai pass through D Ward, particularly Pedder Road junction. Apart from traffic build-ups, this causes wear and tear of old roads. “Sewerage pipes in south Mumbai date back 70-80 years. On several occasions, leaking pipes have burst beneath Pedder Road, causing the road to cave in,” he says.

The TOI-IMRB survey shows that taximen’s refusal to ply is a prominent grouse of the people who live and work in this part of Mumbai. The problem is faced even by civic officials, concedes an assistant engineer: “Taxi drivers refuse to transport passengers within the ward. Each is looking for long-distance fares.” Councillor Shantilal Doshi says he has written to the regional transport office, police commissioner and senior traffic officials, urging them to crack down on the menace and appoint traffic constables to check errant cabbies, but has not received a response for six months.

The pain of D ward has been exacerbated by the stress of new construction. Longtime residents of both highrises and chawls are agitated by the recent spate of development projects. Stunted old houses are making way for some of the tallest buildings in the city, and given that infrastructure remains limited, the roads and water supply are coming under tremendous pressure. People of Malabar Hill, Altamont Road and Walkeshwar are fearful of the fact that the hill is periodically being excavated for new construction, threatening the stability of old structures.

Indrani Malkani, local ALM coordinator, says that flawed planning is partly responsible for the degeneration of D ward. “The Nana Chowk skywalk has spoilt the landscape. Few people use it and the residents of nearby buildings find it intrusive.”

Poor sanitation is a festering problem in the old dilapidated chawls of the ward. The ‘house gullies’, barely 1.5-2 feet of space between buildings, harbour a garbage nuisance that is uncommon elsewhere in Mumbai. “Traditionally, the residents of these chawls do not keep dustbins at home; they chuck garbage out of the window. So house gullies are filled with large piles of organic and inorganic waste that remains uncollected for days, even weeks, because it is not the responsibility of the BMC to visit door to door and gather rubbish,” says a local corporator. “Still it is not as if the BMC has abandoned them. But civic sweepers who do squeeze into these spaces with brooms and pans are deterred by garbage and betel juice landing on their heads.”

Lack of steady water supply is another challenge that certain pockets of D ward face, from the bungalows located on an incline in Malabar Hill and Car michael Road to the chawls. Shyamli Adik, a retired technician from Jaslok Hospital, has lived in the BIT chawls for most of her life. “Most working women like me would like to get steady water supply for at least four hours every morning and evening. Through all my working life I had to rise early to fill water, finish household chores, cook and then go to work. My daughter-in-law faces the same problem.” Councillor Surendra Bagalkar says some chawls not far from Hindu Gymkhana and in Babulnath earlier received water from 4.30am to 7.00am but that was later reduced to an hour’s supply. “However, we worked on a new tunnel system that has upgraded supply a bit,” he says.

N P Yadav of Tardeo says the reason for inadequate supply and water pressure is simple. “In Khetwadi and Nana Chowk, for instance, the buildings are close set, and where is the space to lay new pipes amid the new towers? Ours is an unplanned city and water consumption is far more than these old pipelines can channelize.”

At a glance

Population 3.5L Households 78,236 Births (2012-13 ) 7,360 Deaths (2012-13 ) 1,158 Industries RIP 747 Slum Population34,672 Open Spaces 187.2 acres

First forgotten, then driven out

At the bottom of the order in D ward is Kamathipura, the old red light district which is also home to cottage industries. Nobody’s vote bank, the area has also always been nobody’s child. “Garbage accumulates for days so the area is filthy. Few of the old brothels survive because builders are taking over the land for redevelopment, gradually pushing the women towards extended suburbs like Govandi,” says the spokesperson of an NGO which works in the area. “The women live in 10x10 ft rooms with no cooking facility. They are deprived of healthcare in public hospitals because the staff mistreat them. They do not have identification documents because they are trafficked, so they cannot claim benefits. Still, all we ask is that the authorities keep the roads clean.”

Fight for beach takes new turn

The fight to save Chowpatty beach from encroachments has taken a curious turn in the last few years, say activists. In 2001, after the BMC began evicting hawkers from the area, the bhelwallahs took the civic authorities to court. A committee subsequently drafted rules reserving the beachfront for public use. The bhelwallahs were relocated and political rallies were banned at Chowpatty. Since then, however, private companies offering water sports facilities have partly blocked access to the southern tip or Chhoti Chowpatty, allege activists. They are now battling elite restaurants and boats parked along the stretch.

