Mumbai – the pride of corporate India, cynosure of all eyes- from eight to eighty, gateway to India. The more one uses adjectives and phrases to describe this city, the less it becomes. Perhaps no other city in South Asia (excepting Bangalore, but to a limited extent) has received so much attention in the recent years- be it related to growth and development, international financial center, real estate, lifestyle, people- the list is endless. The situation has reached to such a level, that the authorities have declared a host of plans to transform this city to Shanghai – the powerhouse of the Chinese economy, trying to cash in on the frenzy of the people. The latest addition to this wave of frenzy is the Dharavi redevelopment project, transformation of Asia’s largest slum. All the projects appear very glamorous and envious on paper, but when it comes to actualization, they fail terribly. The Bandra-Worli sea link bears testimony to this fact. However, the most overriding issue that has been stressing the residents and the authorities of this island city for many years is that of affordable accommodation. The problem has accentuated further in the recent years with the burgeoning population, coming from different parts of the country and settling here. Archaic rules, rigidity of the affected parties to the problem, lack of proper vision, inability to execute the projects efficiently have accentuated the problem leading to extensive slumisation of the city. The main bone of contention between the authorities, the developers and the owners have been the granting of the FSI/TDR for redevelopment of large parts of the island city that includes the areas of the closed industrial areas, run down mansions, encroached lands etc. Till recently, the state government granted a maximum FSI of 1.33 for the island city and 1 for the suburbs which when compared to other cities in the world is very low and hence unreasonable. Also, the TDR clause is of little use to solve the problem of convenient accommodation because one can encash this the TDR rights only northwards of the site where it is created, very far away from CBD of the island city. Consequent to repeat persuasions from the affected parties, the government is now considering the option of granting of FSI of 6 for the redevelopment of the old parts of the city and to do away with the TDR. Many have welcomed this move. But there are a lot of things that need to be resolved before this consideration is given consent.

It is to be noted that such a consideration involves the redevelopment of more than 16,000 old buildings, all of which are located in the prime areas of the city. And this is where, lack of proper incentives can defeat the purpose of redevelopment. It should be clear that land in prime areas like south and central Mumbai is highly fungible and there are a lot of alternative uses of land in these parts of the city due to better infrastructure and also because of its elitist label. The benchmark rate that is quoted for residential projects range from Rs. 15000/ square feet in central Mumbai to Rs 65000/ square feet in south Mumbai. Hence there is every temptation on the part of the builders to develop only those projects that will fetch highest returns. Similar conditions apply to the financers of the projects. This fear is affirmed by the track record of previous developmental projects in the city. It is such a situation where operation of the free market forces will only exacerbate the crisis that is looming large. The benefits of redevelopment can be successfully exploited by well conceived package of fiscal incentives that can be given to all the affected parties accompanied by the drafting of a well conceived master plan of the city for the next 25-30 years that visualizes the type of growth in term of sectoral composition of employment, the demographic composition of the city, migratory nature of the working population, zones of commercial and office development, needs of utilities and social services like health care facilities, educational institutions, community centers, shopping centers, modes of communication etc. All these are essential because it will give a fair idea about the alternative uses of the land that are socially desirable (greatest benefit for the greatest number of people) and how to put the land to all such uses, what proportion of residential units should be developed as rented units, what shall be the area of residential units depending on the perceived demand etc. To prevent the development of luxury projects on sites where redevelopment project has been given a nod with a higher FSI, the state can propose to impose tax in a non-linear fashion after a cut-off rate whereby the tax rates will rise in a steeper way than rise in the price of the project along with imposition of other taxes at the local level on similar lines, analogous to the non linear pricing method used in various utilities like electricity. In a similar fashion, fiscal concessions can be given to the financial institutions for encouraging them to invest them in such redevelopment projects. As a matter of fact, lot of discussion has taken place for the setting up of REITS in India. Redevelopment projects like the ones conceived for Mumbai can provide a huge opportunity to these entities to invest their money and earn a reasonable return in terms of rents as there is a high demand for rented residential units of different types due to a large mobile working population in the tertiary sector and the numbers are only going to rise. However, there lies a catch in the development of rented units also. There will be a natural inclination to develop rented units that will fetch very high rents, well beyond the reach of most of the people. Hence, appropriate fiscal incentives needs to be built up in case of rented units similar to the one discussed above. However, the provision of affordable and convenient accommodation is not all that is essential for developing Mumbai into an international class city. Development of efficient modes of public transportation is essential for the successful functioning of the city.

Currently, public modes of transport consist of suburban rail services and the bus transport maintained by the municipal corporation apart from personal modes of transport. The public modes of transport are punctual but not at all reliable and efficient. Compared to the fast growing number of commuters, the rolling stock of public modes of transport has grown very little. The rakes of the suburban rail services have outlived their utility, and in spite of running services at short intervals, the pressure is only increasing with more northward expansion of the city on all the three lines. As a matter of fact, every year on an average, 3000 to 3500 deaths are reported officially on the suburban services, most of which occur as a result of traveling on overcrowded trains. Recently, the railway authorities has started phasing out the old rates with state of the art rakes but the pace is very disappointing and by the time the entire process is completed, it will be of very little use. Coming to the status of road transport, it is much worse. The lengths of the roads have increased only little and there is very little scope of further expansion. The public mode of transport, maintained by BEST is pretty over stretched. Long queues of people anxiously waiting to reach their destinations during the peak times are increasingly becoming common sight at all the major junctions. In response, the personal modes and quasi-personal modes of transport are becoming preferred means of commuting for over short to medium distances. As a matter of fact, about 500 new vehicles are registered everyday at the three RTO offices in the city and most of them are used for personalized modes of transport. This coupled with the very little expansion of the roads has increased the pressure on them leading to their excessive wear and tear which becomes terrible during the incessant monsoons. Heavily under priced fuels has also contributed to the rapid rise in the use of personalized modes of transport. This has led to increased congestion on the roads during the peak time, which in turn has further reduced the efficacy of the road transport. Adding to the problem is abnormally low parking charges in the CBD of the island city. This aberration needs a correction. The government has recently announced the beginning of the Eastern Freeway Project and The Metro Railway Projects to be completed in different phases. However, apart from huge costs involved, these projects have also long gestation periods and entails hardships for the people due to road blockades, diversions etc. Given, the urgency of the situation, it is high time that the government should reconsider some of their policies, at least with respect to the regeneration of the metropolitan centers like Mumbai. For a long time, subsidized gasoline has fuelled the preference for the personalized transport. To counter this trend, it is necessary that in the Tier-I cities like Mumbai, henceforth all sort of subsidies on gasoline and diesel should be discontinued immediately to reflect their actual economic cost. Concomitantly, the existing road transportation should be thoroughly upgraded and extended. The existing fleet of buses should be increased and more special bus services like AC Bus services should be introduced in more routes recovering their full operating cost. To decongest the roads, especially in the older parts of the city, decongestion charges in terms of higher parking charges taking into account the flow of vehicles at different times on working days needs to be implemented. This will also in turn reduce the burden on the roads, which in turn will reduce the cost of maintenance and reduce both air and sound pollution to a significant extent.

Historically, unlike some other metropolitan centers of the country the CBD has been basically located in the south Mumbai rather than being centrally located or dispersed in multiple locations. As a result, the pressure on the transport network has been unidirectional rather than distributed in multiple directions. It is true that BKC is being developed as an answer to that problem, but unfortunately it is used more as a golden goose of the government rather than a site of relocation of the establishments from the town. The government needs to understand this and shed its inflexibility while allocating the land. Instead of auctioning off the lands at astronomical rates to the developers and washing hands off the problem, the government should set up public-private partnerships with the developers whereby the government leases the land to the developers at a much reduced rates from the current levels, gives them a higher FSI than what is being granted at present, and shares the proceeds from the rents and sale of commercial and office space with the respective developers. The desired outcome can be guided in this case through appropriate structuring of fiscal incentives that discourages the development of excessively lavish spaces. The development of further office clusters should not be restricted to BKC only but other areas in the western and the eastern suburbs needs to be considered and developed so that they are within the comfortable reach of the residential clusters where the working population will be putting up. This will definitely help to cut down on the commuting time to a great extent and will also lessen the burden on the existing and to be developed communication infrastructure.

Few years after the independence, the government anticipated the pressure on the island city and felt the urgent need to find solution to the problem and instituted a committee for the same, which suggested the development of a new urban settlement, and as a result Navi Mumbai came up. Unfortunately, till date the potential of this satellite township has remained largely unexploited. Whatever has been utilized has been either insufficient or undesirable. The development of huge tracts of land into Navi Mumbai cannot be undone in any way; the cost is sunk. In this context, the potential of this township needs to be reassessed in the present perspective and master plan for the utilization of the same needs to be drafted. Shifting of the wholesale perishable goods market near Vashi, proposed international airport near Panvel, developments of Seawoods and Belapur as KPO/BPO hubs are good gestures in that direction but should not end there. Other infrastructural needs in terms of rail and road connectivity with other parts of the country, public transport, trans-harbor link, social services, residential clusters need to be developed. Recently, a lot of newsprint has been used discussing the opening up of the eastern sea front for real estate development. Developers are pressuring the government to be decisive in their favor. The columnists seem to have entirely ignored the unutilized potential of Navi Mumbai lying there ready, marginal costs of whose development will be much lower besides avoiding other contentious issues like ecological imbalance, citizen activism, legal hurdles and other objections besides a huge gestation period to develop the basic infrastructure; it is not shortage of land that is coming into the way of city’s development but it is lack of vision and political will, inflexibility on the part of the affected parties that is making the transformation difficult. The less the designated think tank talks about the opening up of the eastern front, the better it is.