At one end of this road in the former textile mill dominated area in Mumbai is the office of the CPM, Communist party of India (Marxist) and the other is the comrade P.K. Kurne chowk square in Worli. But the area in between is being gentrified as no other in this former working class city.
High rise luxury towers have been rising in the mill district for almost three decades because land sharks have closed down mills and used the prime space as gold for themselves. Now, the international furniture giant Ikea is set to open its facility on December 9 in the land of the former Kamala textile mill priding itself as Utopia City, indeed it is a utopia for the rich, the ultimate site of luxury of consumption. It is an attempt to hide a sordid history.. . On 29 December 2017, a fire broke out at Kamala Mills, a commercial complex in Lower Parel, Mumbai, causing the deaths of 14 people, and injuries to 55 more. The fire began in a bar, 1 Above, and spread to an adjacent pub, Mojo’s Bistro, before spreading through the rest of the building in which they were housed. There were numerous violations noticed subsequently by the municipal corporation but its own staff had colluded in some of the irregularities.
Inside the mill compound is also the government’s passport office ironically in premises leased to it by Tata Consultancy. What an irony , the government diluted is own rules on textile mills giving benefits of thousands of crores to mill owners and builders and it has to depend upon corporates for this little piece of land. All this is on Pandurang Budhkar Marg which is very wide and made suitable for corporate dominance.
The Ikea facility will be located on 80,000 sq ft. which is a huge space but comparatively much smaller than its normal stores extending upto four lakh sq ft. And we complain about hawkers occupying small bits of land in the city though they cater to basic needs of millions of people.
Opposite Kamala mill complex is the Birla Centurion where its mill stood but in the last few years it had created a huge lawn and green space in the premises unlike any other management of textile mill land. It is going to make way for a luxury tower of some 75 storeys called Nyaara, it probably means lovely , opinion is divided. Surely it will be nice for the rich and an affront to generations of textile mill workers.
Barring one gate, one gets to see little inside the big complex. Much of it is like a huge enclosure with a very high wall apparently in obvious violation of civic norms. The wall is painted with bird, plant and animal life to give it an environment friendly look but that is just a façade and a cruel one.
Opposite the plush Birla empire one sees absolute poverty. On the footpath live a few people weaving bamboo baskets.Then there is also a small dilapidated little gate with fading letters suggesting that here stands the closed Madhusudan mill of the National Textile Corporation. Fortunately, it seems to have survived corrupt and failed deals with builders.
On the same road has come up a huge complex in the area of Bombay Dyeing mill and thee is a very luxurious tower of Lodha builders called Lodha Park. Surprisingly and a little credit is due here, it does not violate the footpath space as huge luxury buildings invariably do.
Towards the other end of the road a bus stop has been taken over with a big banner of Raj Thakceray-led Maharashtra Nava Nirman Sena. One wonders if it is paying anything at all to the BEST undertaking.
The nearest suburban railway station to this area is Elphinstone Road now renamed Prabhadevi. As one comes out of the station on the main road one sees a nice old chawl, still in good condition, named Laxmi Nivas. It is completely dwarfed by luxury towers in the background clearly indicating that Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, has already shifted to the very very wealthy, unscrupulous rich if one may say so
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of a book on public transport