MUMBAI (UCAN): Concerns have been expressed over excavation and road construction activities near the historic Our Lady of Hope Church in Bhayandarpada, Thane, India.
The structural stability of the 17th-century church is already at risck due to the construction of the Balkum-Gaimukh NH3 Connector Ghodbunder Bypass DP Road, popularly known as the Thane Coastal Road Project.
Father Calisto Fernandes, the parish priest, said on June 23 that roadworks using heavy machinery are underway about 20-25 metres away from the historic structure.
Father Fernandes recounted that the hilltop shrine was built by the Portuguese Franciscan missionaries in 1630. “They [the government] could have easily found an alternative route for the proposed road to save and protect the heritage shrine,” the priest noted.
He added that the private construction company hired for the project also wants to demolish around half of the 220 steps leading to the shrine.
The management of the church received a letter from the company in May saying the concrete steps along with the steel railings will have to be removed as they “fall within the alignment of the proposed road.”
Father Fernandes stressed that the steps were an integral part of the protected Indo-Portuguese heritage.
The company proposed building a temporary access road to the shrine to minimise inconvenience to devotees during the construction phase. It assured that later, a permanent Foot Over Bridge [FOB] would be constructed and handed over to the church management.
However, the priest objected to this, saying he had not received any official letter about the project and its impact on the church from the government authorities.
The ecumenical Association of Concerned Christians [AOCC] warned that failure to safeguard the historic church could result in the loss of an irreplaceable part of the region’s cultural and religious heritage.
“Generations of pilgrims have climbed the 220 steps as an act of penance, devotion and spiritual ascent to the hilltop shrine,” Melwyn Fernandes, general secretary of AOCC and heritage activist, said on June 23.
He stressed that the tradition of climbing the pathway to the shrine needs to be preserved for posterity.
“It has deepened our Catholic faith and devotion to Mother Mary,” he said.
Hundreds of Catholics from far and near flock to this hilltop shrine on April 26 for the annual feast of the parish, Jyotsna Fernandes from Thane noted.
Meanwhile, Mumbai-based Watchdog Foundation on June 23 wrote to the Archaeological Survey of India and the Thane collector, the top government officer of the district, objecting to the excavation and earth-moving activities being carried out near the church.
