Hundreds of fishermen from Worli-Koliwada took to the sea to protest the coastal road work near Worli Dairy on Thursday morning. Upset with barges and anchors damaging their fishing nets and obstructing the route of boats, fishermen in their boats surrounded a jetty constructed for coastal road project for more than two hours. According to the fishermen, for the past two days, barges set up for coastal road construction had started impacting nets casted by kolis in the nearby area. “Huge barges and anchors were set in our fishing area and the route of our boats was also blocked. Earlier, the BMC officials had promised the community to be intimated prior to keeping these barges. However, they were installed in fishing areas without warning and it is now impacting our daily fishing,” said Nitesh Patil, a fisherman and representative of Worli-Koliwada Nakhwa Matsya Vyavsay Sahakari Society Limited.
“After the protest, BMC agreed to remove anchors and barges. We have suggested to them three places to set up these barges and anchors so that our fishing is not affected,” he added. Earlier, a meeting was held with BMC and fishermen on October 8 on the same issue. In the meeting, it was decided that coastal road work will not be carried out in the areas where fishing will be affected. “The BMC had promised that work would not impact fishing of fishermen but their nets were damaged, routes of boats were blocked. But it was a clear violation of court orders,” Shweta Wagh, activist and one of the petitioners in the Bombay High Court, said.
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