Lata threatens to leave Mumbai

The work on the Rs 125 crore Peddar Road flyover will begin by December this year, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Monday.

Talking to reporters at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai, Mr Deshmukh said the proposed flyover "is a necessity" and the Government is in the process of "obtaining necessary clearances" to begin construction on the project by this year-end.

The 3.5-km flyover from Lala Lajpatrai College at Worli and Wilson College at Chowpaty in South Mumbai had been stalled after melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and her sister Asha Bhosale met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in 2001 and raised objections over it. They threatened to quit Mumbai if the project went ahead.

Even today as reports of the project being initiated came, Lata Mangeshkar threatened that she would have no option than to leave Mumbai and settle down at her Pune residence or the ancestral home in Kolhapur, if the Government went ahead with the construction.

The melody queen has said that she would talk to the Chief Minister again.

Asked about the criticism by the acclaimed singer, Mr Deshmukh said he would meet her as well as the Peddar Road Residents Association representatives and hear their views. He said that he had not received any letter from her yet.

However, he said majority of people of Mumbai were supporting the construction of the Peddar Road flyover, which would ease the traffic congestion.

Besides this, the Bandra-Worli sea link would be extended from the Pratiksha building at Worli to NCPA at Nariman Point, he said.