Proper Development Plan Holds Key for Better Social Amenities in Mumbai
The development plan (DP) for the city of Mumbai for the period of 2014-2034 is currently under way and Mumbai’s hopes for better social amenities are pinned on this plan. The development plan is a blueprint for developing the city for 20 years in which, land is reserved for various purposes depending on citizens’ needs.
The development plan for Mumbai is already delayed by over two years and the draft is expected to be submitted by December 2013. Despite the delay, there are speculations that important elements may have been either missed out or been ignored while preparing the DP. Some believe that the DP has been compromised on certain levels.
Slums ignored in DP
The DP seems to have ignored several crucial aspects. For example, the slums in Mumbai are marked as simple grey areas with a red boundary on the existing land use maps, instead of being mapped in a detailed manner. Roughly 60% of Mumbai’s population lives in slums. While inviting expressions of interest (EoI), BMC had proposed compiling data related to housing and slums, and reducing the slum population to about 14% by 2031. However, a detailed survey hasn’t been done yet.
The executive director of UDRI, an urban planning institute says that slums cannot be marked as homogenous clusters as each slum is different from the other. One also needs to take into consideration the various amenities present in the slum while mapping them. It is important to map a slum in context of its residential composition, number of working residents, children, small-scale industries, industrial units, etc in order to plan for the future.
It is also seen that certain slums such as Oshiwara, Dharavi and Backbay have been left out from BMC’s mapping exercise. The total area excluded is about 19 sq.km of the total 457 sq.km, which includes areas that come under MMRDA.
Bad track record with DP implementation
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is known to have a bad track record when it comes to implementation of the DP. According to estimates, only 15% of the previous DP had actually been implemented in the last two decades. Senior state officials state that the DP is sometimes passed so late past the deadline that the city’s character would have completely changed by the time the DP is approved.
Taking into account how the previous two DPs viz. 1967 and 1994 were planned and implemented, only 12% of the plans have been implemented in the last 50 years. The city’s population has more than doubled during this period when the first two DPs were in effect.
Other reasons for bad implementation
One of the major flaws in the DP process is that it lacks public participation. Citizen groups claim that DPs include builders, architects and allied interests but leave out the public. If the public were involved during the preparation, there would be better implementation. According to the MRTP Act of 1996, the general public must be involved during draft preparation. However, the citizen groups claim that consultations are held with public only after the draft plan is ready to be implemented. Only in 2012, BMC has changed the process to involve public during planning. However, the existing land use (ELU) maps used for planning still remain out of reach for the public. UDRI found about 1,200 discrepancies in the land markings in comparison with 1994 DP’s land reservations.
Moving forward
Urban planners believe that BMC needs to take certain steps for a smoother DP planning. The civic body must make it clear what it wants to offer the city through revision of the plan, who the stake holders are and who the plan primarily intends to focus on. It must also involve the public more and not shroud the planning process in mystery. There must be a full disclosure on anything that affects public life.
