Cuffe Parade could get a New York like Central Park

The Central Park in NYC, one of the most filmed locations in the world, is spread over nearly 900 acres. Now, The BMC wants to build Mumbai’s largest park in south Mumbai, on the lines of the historic Central Park in New York City. The civic body has proposed to reclaim 300 acres off Cuffe Parade for the project. Interestingly, the biggest park spreading over 290 acres in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region which is in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai is also named the Central Park.

“It will be a recreational park, a much-needed green cover in south Mumbai. There will be no commercial usage of the space,” a senior civic official said. The Cuffe Parade park is proposed off GD Somani Marg. “The idea is to create a world-class recreational facility, and the administration has proposed it in the revised development control rules,” an official from the said a BMC official from the gardens department.

The civic officials however, admitted that even if the proposal is approved and the permissions are in order, it may take almost a decade or more for such a facility to come up. Mumbaikars should not fret because it took the New York City administration also, nearly 20 years to build the Central Park, which was officially completed in 1873.

The proposed project has not gone too well with the environmentalists, nonetheless, dispelling fears of the green brigade, senior civic officials said that the project was actually proposed way back in 1970, at the same location and they were keen on going ahead despite the chagrin.