Bandra (West) MLA Ashish Shelar has recently made a shocking announcement that the National College Metro Station on Line 2B stands CANCELLED. This station is a VITAL LINK for the thousands of residents of the Bandra Khar area and also for the thousands of students who commute daily to National College, MMK College, Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, GJ Advani College. 

Other important institutions in the area that see visitors from across the city include Radha Soami Satsang Beas, G7 Multiplex, Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir, Podar School, St Theresa's school and the Linking Road area which is also a major shopping hub in Mumbai. The National College Metro Station would have significantly reduced traffic congestion in the area and promoted comfortable public transport.

 

How will you be affected?

The chart below shows the distance between metro stations on the Line 2B. If National College station is cancelled, distance between Saraswat Nagar (near Khar station) and Bandra metro station (Lucky Hotel junction) will be 2.2km. This creates the largest distance between any two stations on Line 2B in an extremely busy and traffic congested area!

While every other neighbourhood in Mumbai will have a metro station within a distance of about 1km of their homes/colleges/offices, residents of Bandra and Khar will have to travel much further to board the metro!

If National College station is cancelled, daily commuters like students to National College will have to alight at Saraswat Nagar (Khar) or Bandra metro (Lucky hotel) and then take other transport to their destination. This will only increase traffic congestion in an area that is already choked with traffic everyday. 

The metro was supposed to ease traffic problems but this decision will only make things worse!

 

How did this problem arise?

The location of National College station was shifted by a few hundred metres due to the presence of sewer lines at the original location. Unfortunately some residents of Tata Colony on SV Road objected to the shifting of the station in front of their colony. The new location would also affect a small portion of Sadhu Vaswani park for an exit of the station and the demand was made to shift the station back to its original location.

MMRDA under guidance of MLA Ashish Shelar instead of moving the station back, have decide to cancel the entire National College Metro Station! 

 

What do we demand?

We the affected residents of Bandra and Khar, as well as thousands of students who will use the National College Metro Station demand that the National College Station be reinstated!

As noted in this article in Mid-Day, it is possible for MMRDA to build the station at the new location without any construction within Sadhu Vaswani Garden or the metro exit from that side can simply be omitted.

We refuse to allow a VITAL TRANSPORT LINK to be cancelled for ridiculous reasons when simple common sense alternatives are avialable to solve the problem.

Please sign this petition or we will lose a golden opportunity for our neighbourhood forever. The metro will be a transport link for the next 50-100 years. Once built, we will never be able to have a station in this area again. So let us act now and ask our elected representatives to act in all OUR COLLECTIVE INTEREST.