Booming office spaces and crumbling infrastructure

Central Mumbai, which comprises of areas such as Parel, Worli, Lower Parel, Elphinstone, Currey Road, and Mahalaxmi has seen a boom of at least 11 million square foot of office space in the last decade or more. Experts predict that an equal or more area will be added in the coming years.

Over the years, the area has seen a rise in the number of working population and has witnessed a sea of change. Thus inadvertently, causing a burden on the city's rail and road infrastructure.

Friday's incident highlighted the issue of increasing number of office spaces but the availability of lack of infrastructure to tackle the issue. Dr Sanjay Chaturvedi, a housing expert said, "In the last decade or more there have been a series of commercial development but no infrastructure assessments.

Look at BMC, or the town planners, they haven't done much research. There's no space for parking, there are traffic jams everywhere and even the rail infrastructure has remained more or less the same."

To put things into perspective, Central Mumbai is growing commercially and the reason for this is its connectivity. Anuj Puri, Chairman, Anarock Property Consultants, said, "With an advantage of excellent connectivity to key locations, Parel and its nearby areas have emerged as prime commercial hubs. Connectivity with both central and western railway lines has also made it one of the most sought-after localities."

Chaturvedi added that the area will see the addition of new commercial and residential space than what exists today.

"BDD Chawl redevelopment will be taking place. Then there are central government agencies that are adding residential and commercial spaces near Parel and Sewree. Mill land is being redeveloped, and most are commercial spaces. There is an urgent need of reassessing the infrastructure in the city," Chaturvedi said.