MUMBAI: If you plan to party in one of the nightclubs that have mushroomed in Bandra over the past few months, be extra careful about your traffic behaviour even if there are no khaki-clad men in sight. For, residents of the area, fed up with the unruly behaviour of drunk revellers, have taken it upon themselves to keep their roads safe from the dangers of rash driving and utter chaos.
Bandra residents have been complaining that traffic snarls and noise pollution levels escalated tremendously since Escobar opened in December 2009, at the junction of Linking Road and 28th Road, which already housed two restobars, Dhanraj and On Toes. After news of Poison reopening in the form of Royalty made the rounds, residents decided it was time to call it a day. In fact, such was the menace that they were forced to form the advanced locality management (ALM), Revival Citizens' Group, only so that their problems would be taken seriously.
"Individual complaints made to the local and traffic police were brushed aside. We needed to get together and form a group, so that we would be taken seriously. Then, when we still didn't get any response, we started patrolling the streets ourselves," said Manuela Saldanha, secretary of the ALM. "At any given point in time, there have been at least 30-40 people stepping out of their homes on Friday and weekends, stopping cars from zipping into no-entry zones. We have not got out in the last week, but we have noticed a drop in the chaos," she added.
Because of these clubs, residents said they find it difficult to keep their minds calm, with loud music and vibration often going on till as late as 2 am. "The lanes are very narrow and both the sides are lined with cars. Even after the clubs shut down, people are drunk and shouting on top of their voices. The cars make too much noise as well. It becomes hellish at nights," said resident Nitin Gokarn.
The month-long patrolling has already had a good fallout. Not only has Escobar shut down citing reasons of renovation, but traffic snarls in the vicinity have also reduced. Each time they caught a car parking in front of a no-parking board, or even entering a no-entry zone, they would call a traffic police official, and ask him to take up the issue. "Since we didn't have any authority, we couldn't ask people to produce their driving licences. But we got help from the traffic police. We'd call them each time we found offenders, and their cars would be towed away, and their licences taken," said Saldanha
Bandra residents have been complaining that traffic snarls and noise pollution levels escalated tremendously since Escobar opened in December 2009, at the junction of Linking Road and 28th Road, which already housed two restobars, Dhanraj and On Toes. After news of Poison reopening in the form of Royalty made the rounds, residents decided it was time to call it a day. In fact, such was the menace that they were forced to form the advanced locality management (ALM), Revival Citizens' Group, only so that their problems would be taken seriously.
"Individual complaints made to the local and traffic police were brushed aside. We needed to get together and form a group, so that we would be taken seriously. Then, when we still didn't get any response, we started patrolling the streets ourselves," said Manuela Saldanha, secretary of the ALM. "At any given point in time, there have been at least 30-40 people stepping out of their homes on Friday and weekends, stopping cars from zipping into no-entry zones. We have not got out in the last week, but we have noticed a drop in the chaos," she added.
Because of these clubs, residents said they find it difficult to keep their minds calm, with loud music and vibration often going on till as late as 2 am. "The lanes are very narrow and both the sides are lined with cars. Even after the clubs shut down, people are drunk and shouting on top of their voices. The cars make too much noise as well. It becomes hellish at nights," said resident Nitin Gokarn.
The month-long patrolling has already had a good fallout. Not only has Escobar shut down citing reasons of renovation, but traffic snarls in the vicinity have also reduced. Each time they caught a car parking in front of a no-parking board, or even entering a no-entry zone, they would call a traffic police official, and ask him to take up the issue. "Since we didn't have any authority, we couldn't ask people to produce their driving licences. But we got help from the traffic police. We'd call them each time we found offenders, and their cars would be towed away, and their licences taken," said Saldanha
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