The Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika has decided to lay down bigger sized storm water drainage pipes for prevention of flooding at Priyadarshini Park resulting in the destruction of our Synthetic Tennis Court and other facilities at Priyadarshini Park and Sports Complex.

Not only will the World Class Synthetic Tennis Court and other facilities be affected, but it would also mean the cutting down of nine fully grown beautiful trees, which have been lovingly nutured with tender care by the Malabar Hill Citizens' Forum over all these years. It will not only be disastrous from the environmental point of view where, in our land of concrete jungles, one needs to preserve every tree one can, but it is also illegal to cut down trees.

Although the Office of the Assistant Commissioner, D Ward Municipal Office has been most co-orperative towards our problems, they have stated that the tennis court is constructed above the existing S W D line and will thus require certain amount of digging at the PDP. They have however promised that they will minimize the area of damage to the tennis court by shifting the alignment of the pipes suitably.

Shri B A Desai has written to the Asst Municipal Commissioner of the D Ward, requesting him to have a look at the plans sent by their sewage consultants, Stup Consultants who are international experts in their line, with 165 branches all over the world. Their plans have laid down and shown how the sewage lines can be effectively laid while protecting the Tennis Court at the same time.

We request our members at PDP to bear with us while we take the utmost care to see that the work gets completed with minimal damage to our tennis courts and other facilities and that we are able to preserve our trees and the beautiful ambience which Priyadarshini Park and Sports Complex is known for.