Fish traders stranded amid the ongoing demolition of the market by the BMC

The current destruction of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Market near CSMT has provoked the fish traders and fisherwomen who claim that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has yet not provided them with new space. The project which was in line for the past 6 years now the structure has been razed under the redevelopment plan. 

 

After the incident took place where the collapse of a building at Dockyard road took the lives of municipal employees and their family members, the market was taken for demolition in 2014. With the four floors of the building being taken down, leaving the ground floor and the basement. Now from the past four days, the demolition work has been running. 

 

All the fish traders who are involved in the import and export with the local fisherwomen stated that the business was being done by them for a very long time with the demolition work getting commenced now we have nowhere to go. They further stated that even after protests were performed by all of us the demolition work went on to continue by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). They said according to the procedure the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will be providing us with a makeshift tent at the same place until the whole work is completed. 

 

During a meeting, last week of the Mayor Kishori Pednekar and local MP Arvind Sawant asked the officials to provide them with space, stated the trader. The trader further said that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) didn’t even spend a single rupee on the ground floor and basement of the structure as it was repairable. 

 

“If earlier the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) would have done the work of repairing the existing structure would have been saved. We are to be given a place at the Crawford Market’s new wing, but as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s no aim of saving us, we currently have nowhere to go”, stated the trader.