Another garden for Bombay

If we can restore all open spaces in Bombay like this, Bombay can regain its past glory,” noted former bureaucrat and long serving social activist B. G. Deshmukh on June 28, 2010, complimenting the two social stalwarts, Shirin Bharucha and Nayana Kathpalia, whose determination and dedication over six long years transformed a once heavily encroached space where the municipality used to dump the refuse of the area into a green and brown tapestry.

Deshmukh was speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Organisation for Verdant Ambience and Land (OVAL) which has undertaken to restore the Cross Maidan Garden for the benefit of the citizens of Bombay and the audience shared his wonder and delight. The "first phase” of the tree-fringed Garden presents widening rectangles of grass and sand leading to a paved circle where concerts, sculpture exhibitions and other cultural events of public interest may be held. Walkways, benches for senior citizens, a play area for children, a drinking water fountain and litter bins, have been largely fenced in except where a row of unlicensed hawkers continue to ply their trade in line with the Bhikha Behram Well on Veer Nariman Road. The design of the fence is a repeat of the one at the Oval Maidan across the street which has been approved by the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC), as notes the souvenir presented on the occasion.

The centerpiece of the Garden will be an award winning steel sculpture by Nuru Karim. An artistic rendition of the Gandhian Charkha, Karim’s entry was in participation of a competition sponsored by Tata Steel/Tata Structura called ‘Notions of India’ when designers were invited to create an architectural and engineering symbol for contemporary India. It remains to be assembled and placed in position.

Thanking the 70 plus people who had picked their way through the rain-soaked ground in response to the Trust’s invitation for the inaugural, Kathpalia appealed to them and to the national Press to pressurize another encroacher on the land — a company that had been given permission to exhibit its products for a year and had thereafter managed to convert its presence into a tenancy: "We need a press campaign… that we cannot have a permanent structure in a recreation ground from where commercial activities are being conducted.”

The project team for the multipurpose recreation ground includes architect Rahul Gore of _Opolis, the Sewri Engineering and Construction Company Private Limited, architect Ajay Mirajgao­ker, Asavari Honavar of Studio Ananya and Jagdish Gowda, head gardener, lists the OVAL Trust brochure. But none of their vision and dream would have seen the light of day without the unstinted financial support of the Tata Group of Companies and the Tata Trusts, it notes. The Garden initiative has been supported by four successive Collectors of Mumbai City and has had the total approval of the MHCC. The cooperation of the MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) and its A Ward officers, successive DCPs of Zone 1 and the Azad Maidan Police Station has been acknowledged by the trustees in their souvenir as also the historical information shared by heritage architects Sharada Dwivedi and Pankaj Joshi as well as lawyers Shyam Divan, Madhavi Divan and Zulfikar Jariwala for their pro bono professional expertise.

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History

The Cross Maidan is one of four grounds laid out for public recreation when the walls of the Bombay Fort were demolished and the Esplanade — the clear space required by the guns of the Fort to fire at enemy ships — became available for development. It is so called after a sacred cross which was placed at the northern end of the maidan after its removal from a demolished Roman Catholic cathedral which once stood on the present site of the Elphinstone Technical High School on Mahapalika Marg, notes the souvenir.

Under the jurisdiction of the Collector of Mumbai city, the Cross Maidan Garden measures 25,000 sq yards and is bound by Veer Nariman Road (Churchgate Street) to the south, Vithaldas Thackersey Road (New Marine Lines) to the West, K. B. Patil Marg (Mayo Road) to the East and an internal east-west road to the north which divides it from the rest of the maidan. The history of the heritage structures that surround it has been inscribed on plaques at the entrance gate.

This second venture at the revival of the city’s open spaces follows the OVAL Trust’s resounding success at restoring and maintaining the Oval Maidan. Shortly after its formal inaugural and sterling encomiums by Dr P. C. Alexander, then Governor of Maharashtra, the Government of Maharashtra authorized the OVAL Trust to restore and maintain this part of the Cross Maidan by a Government Resolution (GR of 2004). However, it was in 2006 that the land was handed over to the Trust and other disparities came to light.

That was the day the authorities discovered that the GR did not include the 2,000 sq yards of the southern edge where the hawkers had encroached. Thus, in effect, only 23,000 sq yards had been handed over. "The process of getting another GR for the balance area took several years and the land was handed over to the Trust on October 8, 2009,” notes the souvenir.

In a post inaugural chat with Parsiana Bharucha recalled the hurdles they had faced: "We had a signed agreement with the Collector that he was to give us the land free of encroachments. The center of the plot was totally encroached and the MCGM used it for dumping. With the government’s help we got the five acre piece of land free. But when we got the handover letter, we saw that a whole strip of land was not included in the plan. The Collector’s office said it did not belong to them. The municipality said it did not belong to them (either) as it was in the garden. We went back to the ward office and the plan showed it belonged to the government!”

By the time the second GR was handed over to the OVAL trustees, three years had elapsed. The OVAL trustees then moved the Collector’s office, citing an old Court order, that hawkers had no right to remain in a recreation ground or a place of worship. The Collector got the hawkers removed on a Saturday but failed to ready the Trust to take over and the hawkers swiftly moved the Supreme Court (SC). "The SC order requires the status quo to be maintained on the ground as of October 8, 2009 when as a matter of fact on that day there were no encroachments as they had rightly been removed by the Collector Mumbai (City),” records the souvenir, adding, "This matter is pending in the SC and the hawkers are currently in contempt of the Court’s order... The SC gave the Collector time and he has now filed his rejoinder,” notes Bharucha.

In early 2006 the OVAL trustees found their Garden plans in conflict with the MCGM project for increasing the water supply to south Bombay by laying a water shaft right in the center of the Garden, notes the souvenir. The project, due completion in 2011, would have delayed the start of work in the Garden. Innumerable meetings and much nail biting suspense later, the Guardian Minister for Mumbai City Jayant Patil’s intervention shifted the tunnel work to the northern end of the Garden, thereby ensuring that both projects could be pursued simultaneously. Once the tunnel work is completed the 7,000 square meters now cordoned off will revert to the Garden.

Referring to the 555.5 sq yards near the south eastern edge of the Garden taken over by a commercial entity, the souvenir states it is so far unavailable for restoration. This area was supposedly given to the company that makes Siporex tiles as a "temporary demonstration house for the period January 1 to December 31, 1983,” records the souvenir, adding, "It is now 27 years on since an incorrect use of a designated Recreation Ground has been permitted to continue to the detriment of the public!” "Siporex’s Vijay Shirke pays rent to the Collector and runs a full fledged office in a recreation ground,” says Bharucha, disgust writ large on her face. (There was no response to Parsiana’s efforts to contact Shirke through his office.)

Another eyesore is the defunct toilet adjacent to the Bhikha Behram Well set up by the Sunrise Rotary Club. The strong objection to its location next to the Well considered holy by the Parsi community had led the SC to say, "Find another use for the structure.” The Rotary Club had suggested a dispensary or library but the matter is still in the High Court and the intervening years have seen the passing away of this particular chapter of the Club as well as of the donor for the project, recounts Bharucha.

Ever determined and optimistic, Kathpalia and Bharucha remain unmindful of the legal procedures and procedural tangles that have buffeted them for the past six years. By the end of the year they hope to have all obstacles ironed out and a nifty garden complete for the use of Bombay’s citizens.