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| THE PLAN In a PPT format |
The plan is already 2 years behind. Last year the Chief Minister ordered the planners to re-work the plan based on the heavy criticism it received from various citizen bodies. Is the revised plan any better? Depends on whose point of view one looks at it from, and with the criticism received so far, looks like it may end up on the drawing board again, leaving much of the City's development until then in a state of whimsical arbitrage and dangerous consequences.Well, I am not going to criticize the plan. There are several doing that already. To add to it, the City's civic authorities are also being hammered in the press for the massive corruption unearthed in the roads and drainage contracts. Not that it makes much difference 'cause it never did. The money siphoned shall never return and no officer of consequences will ever get punished. The reason is very obvious. If the DDP is a window into what will happen next, it is nothing short of party time for the officials.
My humble observations and comments for the non-bots that read me:
1. Increasing the buildable Floor Space Index (FSI) across the city will not make real estate cheap, it never has. It will only make the land bankers richer. Hence, the cost of acquired land, from a builders perspective will not change.
2. Affordable housing will remain a myth if the job is left to private builders, and quality a myth if the civic bodies execute it.
3. A slum dweller rarely finds living above the ground liveable. Something about the fresher than toxic air on the ground not being agreeable. Or, is that the occupant has to actually pay for the water, electricity and amenities used? Cheaper to pay a fixed lump sum to the slumlord billionaire and live in "Hotel Slumdog" - everything included. So the SRA allotted flat is rented to someone looking for affordable housing and the slum dweller goes back to living on encroached public lands for almost free.
4. Open spaces, parking spaces, cultural spaces, recreation spaces all contribute to the City's quality of life. But who cares when the only yardstick for measuring QOL is money, "doesn't matter black or white" (credit - MJ).
5. Nearly half the City would be ineligible for FSI 2 until the CRZ (Coastal regulation Zone) and airport funnel restrictions are sorted. With the way IS and others are making inroads into this Country, I wonder if anyone would like to live in a building with a helipad on top unless you have made it to the top 1000 in the City.
6. Skygardens on the top of buildings - nice, but what about light hitting the roads? One can already smell the neighbours breakfast, and I am talking about that lives in the building and not the apartment next door. So would it not have been better to attach FSI with progressive setbacks and land consolidation? With enhanced FSI the City should have restricted building footprint to 33% of land area and height no greater than 5 - 10 times road width. Playing cricket on a roof top is as unsafe as playing on the road, but I assume, as always, that situation would be addressed after it happens and not before.
7. Water, drainage, roads. The City's natural water bodies can just about fulfill the needs for a year, and if the rain Gods decide to play traunt, then I don't know who this City can turn to? On the other hand, millions of gallons of treated and raw sewage is disposed off into the sea each day with no real arrangement for water recovery. Going vertical is great, City needs it as there is no land, but has anyone passed through the manmade vertical jungle of Lower Parel lately?
a) The connecting roads are woefully inadequate.
b) People using the road are in desparate need to use the loo or attend some funeral. At least the driving sense suggests it.
8. Schools, hospitals, musuems, fire stations, police stations, community centres. Where are these in the whole equation? While there is a whole lot of money to build statues to commemorate glorious kings of the past, is there is no money for civic facilities for the people in the present? Each and every one of these facilities could be named after the Great Maratha and the people would bless his soul and the people responsible for building it.
Instead of modifying the plan, had the Civic authorities looked at MODI-fying the plan, a lot of problems could actually be solved. The SMART way of going about would be to find ways and means of reducing the population of Mumbai. On the other hand, with millions of unsold homes, would it not be cheaper to ask developers to sell 1/3 rd of them to the City at cost and it, in turn, the City could sell them as affordable homes?
I am not sure if any of the scammed money will ever return to the coffers like it should- despite all the political noise in the centre that it will. But surely, most of that Rs 5,000+crores that leak out as contracts for roads drains, and other such nice works each year from our civic budget will be saved henceforth, and can be put to good use - right? Sorry wrong question.
Rs 5,000 cr scam in BMC road works, alleges Congress
— By | Mar 04, 2016 01:28 amMumbai: It will take Rs 2,000 cr to make Shivaji statue environment friendly
Does Mumbai really need 11 lakh more houses?
The state’s plans to build more houses in the city is just a sophisticated land-grab scheme.
Hussain Indorewala is an urban researcher with the Collective for Spatial Alternatives and an assistant professor at the Kamla Raheja Vidynidhi Institute of Architecture in Mumbai.Experts raise doubts about Mumbai’s development plan
BMC proposes 2 FSI in revised draft DP 2034
Doing away with the controversial area-based variable floor space index (FSI) concept in the earlier draft, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed a uniform two FSI in its revised draft Development Plan 2034 for the city. The civic body has also proposed high FSI of 5 for commercial purposes.
In the revised draft DP, the basic zonal FSI of city and suburbs is maintained along with the fungible FSI.
Mumbai: Modifications in development plan for transport projects get easier
MMRDA will not require sanctions for realignment of existing corridors or any new projects Mon, 9 May 2016-05:40am , dna
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