The plaza is expected to cost the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Rs 29.10 crore. Three storeys are ready after construction work started in September last year. However, acting director in-charge of special engineering G Y Mane admitted that the work is not likely to be completed on schedule by June, 1999.

The delay will mean the civic corporation will be forced to pay 13 per cent interest on the loan it received from the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA). The loan for construction of the plaza was offered interest-free on the condition that the work will be completed in the stipulated 11 months.

While some civic officials are of the opinion that the interest amount should be recovered from the builder ChanduConstructions, the Mayor-in-Council (MiC) has failed to take any decision on this. Though the tender documents had clearly specified the timeframe for construction work, there was no mention of any fine to be imposed on the builder if the work is delayed.

Mayor Nandu Satam, on the other hand, has blamed the administration stating that the decision to construct the plaza and award the contract was taken in a hurry. However, he refused to pin-point the fault in the manner in which the contract was awarded.

Dadar hawkers have one more worry. The plaza will not be able to accommodate more than 1,000 hawkers. There are varying figures on the number of hawkers. While the civic corporation quote 940 hawkers in its records, former chief minister Manohar Joshi, who was elected from Dadar assembly constituency, had promised in 1997 that all 2,600 hawkers will be accommodated in the plaza. In the same year the BMC had commissioned the the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and YUVA to survey hawkers operating inDadar. The report had claimed that there are 5,500 hawkers in Dadar.

However, commissioner Girish Gokhale dismissed these figures, saying the BMC will accommodate about 1,200 hawkers in the new plaza. ``According to BMC staff, there are about 940 licensed hawkers who are to be accomodated,'' he said, adding that even if the number is taken on the higher side there will not be more than 1200 hawkers.

The five-storeyed structure is planned to accommodate 350 vegetable vendors, 120 cloth merchants who were carrying on their trade on the plot where the plaza is coming up. Last year, over 540 flower vendors had filed a petition in High Court demanding that they be rehabilitated in the plaza. While no stay was granted on the construction of the plaza, the high court had directed BMC not to rehabilitate the hawkers in the plaza pending final order in the case.

Meanwhile, the civic administration has drafted a proposal to construct a 10-storeyed building adjoining the plaza in Raut Wadi and rehabilitate morehawkers, though the number has not been specified. The plan proposes to rehabilitate the Wadi residents in the upper floors though the residents themselves have expressed their opposition. The MiC rejected this proposal last week.