Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Jan 20: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will submit a revised building plan for a civic school in Mankhurd after the defence establishment rejected the earlier proposal for a multi-storey structure, leading to further delay in rebuilding a school that was demolished nearly five years ago.

This marks the second such instance after Colaba where construction of a BMC school has been stalled due to objections raised by defence authorities over multi-storey buildings located near defence installations. In Mankhurd, the proposed school site is situated directly opposite a defence establishment.

The school building in old Mankhurd village was demolished in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic after being declared dilapidated and unsafe. At the time of demolition, the school had around 450 students enrolled from Classes 1 to 7, with Hindi, Marathi and Urdu medium sections.

Santosh Surve, chairperson of Janjagruti Vidyarthi Manch, an organisation working on education-related issues in Mankhurd, questioned the decision to demolish the school. “The building was repaired in 2018, but it was suddenly declared dilapidated and demolished during the pandemic. Students were forced to shift to other schools located far from their homes,” he said.

As reported earlier, since the demolition of the school, ward 135 has been left without a single BMC-run school. A similar situation had earlier emerged in Colaba, where a civic school project was delayed after defence authorities objected to the construction, forcing the BMC to revise its plans.

Currently, students from the demolished Mankhurd school attend classes in Maharashtra Nagar. Parents have raised serious safety concerns, pointing out that children are required to cross suburban railway tracks and a busy main road daily to reach the school.

“It is not possible for us to risk our children’s lives just to send them to school,” a parent said.

Surve, who is also an alumnus of the Mankhurd school, added that parents see no need for a multi-storey building. “A basic school building like the earlier one is sufficient,” he said.

Prachi Jambhekar, Deputy Commissioner of Education, BMC, said the civic body’s proposal was rejected due to revised defence norms. “We had submitted our proposal to the defence authorities, but it was not approved because of the new rules. We are now redesigning the plan and will submit it again to obtain the required permissions,” she said.

Defence officials, meanwhile, stated that permission could not be granted under existing guidelines. “As per Government of India Ministry of Defence guidelines issued on May 18, 2011, and amended on March 18, 2015, and November 17, 2015, the Indian Navy is not authorised to issue a no-objection certificate for multi-storey school construction due to the close proximity of the proposed site to the defence establishment INS Shikra,” the defence authorities said.