'This DP will slowly strangle Mumbai, leading to a painful death'

Architect Chandrashekhar Prabhu takes the magnifying glass to DP 2034 and comes away dissatisfied

The island city is already bursting at the seams. There is a lot of water-logging during monsoon, traffic jams are perennial, and yet, the government wants to increase the FSI without assessing its impact. This is akin to strangulating the city. The noose is tightening, and the city is likely to die a painful death unless something very drastic is done. First, it should provide adequate infrastructure to existing residents and create surplus infrastructure. Only then can the increase in FSI be justified.

To go from Dadar West to East in peak time takes one hour. From Elphinstone Road West to Parel takes 90 minutes, as does from Lower Parel (Phoenix Mills) to ITC Parel. Why? Because traffic has increased manifold, and the reason for that is mill lands subjected to indiscriminate urbanisation.

Only developer benefits
Also, they [state government] have removed the clause that makes 70 per cent consent must to go ahead with redevelopment, bringing it down to 51 per cent. The only person benefitting from this is the developer. In the last 35 years, 19,800 buildings needed to be redeveloped in island city, but only 1,800 have been. So, by this calculation, it will take 250 years to redevelop all old and dilapidated buildings.

For slum dwellers, 15 lakh homes were needed. In the last 21 years, since SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) was formed, only 1 lakh have been built. Again, going by this speed, it will take 200 years to build all. Existing laws have failed despite amending them hundreds of times, and yet, the government is continuing with the same for the next 20 years. This shows it is not serious in its efforts to promote redevelopment. Less than 20 per cent of the 1991 DP was implemented across the city, and from 1991 to now, it was changed hundreds of times. If after so many revisions, you could not achieve the desired results, then why continue with it?

Taking away citizens' right
Co-operative housing societies own land. Why should they be forced to buy TDR (Transfer of Development Rights), owned by a cartel of developers? You are taking away citizens' right and making them contribute to the builders' racket. This is completely wrong. One can understand paying for infrastructure, but not for bailing out bankrupt builders! It was expected that all rules of redevelopment would change and be made more pro-people, but alas. People are now convinced that builders are calling the shots.

1,800
Number of buildings redeveloped in last 35 years

1 lakh
Number of homes built for slum dwellers in last 21 years

As told to Laxman Singh

Also read: Mumbai's new development plan allows an increase in FSI of buildings

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