Mumbai, Sept. 15 -- After a two year long wait for a 90-foot road, over a 100 residents of the Chandivali Citizens Welfare Association cut a cake to mark the second year anniversary of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) unfulfilled promise. Residents used the 'Jhoot Bolo' (Tell Lies) cake cutting ceremony at a building club house in Nahar Amrit Shakti Road, to sarcastically highlight the civic body's frustrating delay. Once the promised road is built, it will give the residents easier access to the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR), cutting their travel time from Chandivali to JVLR to a mere 15 minutes. At present, it takes them nearly 45 minutes to 1 hour due to the traffic. The BMC's Development Plan (DP) road will also give buildings in the area easy access to the highway and provide alternate routes. HT first reported about this issue in 2023, when the Chandivali residents staged a hunger strike, to bring the DP road to the civic body's attention. The strike prompted the BMC to issue a statement which said that the work tender would be given within a month and the construction would start within a year. "Now it has been two years, no work has started," said Mandeep Makkar, founder of CCWA. Although a Rs.27.78 crore tender was released and the project got the necessary approvals, the work is yet to begin. "We understand that the construction of the whole road will take time, so we are only asking for 700 meters starting from JVLR to the Chandivali farm road that will ease the traffic," added Makkar. As per the development plan, the entire stretch of the road will begin at Sakinaka and end at the JVLR. The BMC said the delay was due to encroachments on the road. While one stretch is occupied by the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), on another stretch, slum dwellers have settled onto land owned by a private builder. Soon after the BMC made its promise to the residents, it sent notices to the slum dwellers of the Manubhai Chawl, asking them to vacate their premises. "We sent notices to over 80 encroached units there, but they went to court against the notice," said Dhanaji Herlekar, Assistant Commissioner of L ward. Herlekar added that while the SCI had agreed to relocate to accommodate the new road, the corporation demanded the BMC to take complete possession of the land before they moved. "Last year the litigation ended when the court ordered the private builder to give the encroachers rehabilitation under the SRA scheme," said Herlekar. However, residents of Chandivali pointed out that the private builder had begun developing other parts of the area but had not carried out the SRA development. "The BMC should have put the condition of completing this work before going on to next work," said Makkar. He added that as new houses come up, the population will rise, so will the number of cars, leading to even more traffic. The CCWA members added that the traffic congestion also hinders the timely response of essential services since they have to navigate their way through narrow roads. On September 2, the CCWA wrote a letter to the BMC Municipal Commissioner, Bhushan Gagrani, regarding the issue, but with no sign of the promised roads, the residents remain in limbo....