Sassoon Dock may soon flourish as a tourist spot

Eight designs were presented on Sunday as part of a designing charette organised by the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) for modernisation and development of the wet dock and refurbishing of the heritage Sassoon Dock as a tourist destination.

"In all there were 49 participants who ideated and prepared designs during the day-long event. We will be going through each of the presentations again and accordingly short list or prepare a final implementable plan," said Sanjay Bhatia, Chairman of MbPT.

A total of 8 groups were formed among the participants. They comprised planners, architects, social workers, engineers and environmentalists.

The whole idea is to have fishing as well as tourism go hand in hand at Sassoon Dock. Some of the presentations entailed having a high-level pedestrian pathway, an amphitheatre, a museum, water bodies, food courts laying emphasis on aesthetics.

MbPT plans to prepare their own plan for a makeover of Sassoon Dock. A committee consisting of senior MbPT officials would brainstorm over the ideas submitted. They will pick best from all the plans presented to formulate the final idea. Once through, MbPT may invite the participants to seek their opinions so that the final idea can be fine-tuned and more details can be added to it.

In September, MbPT had floated bids for having restaurants serving various cuisines at Sassoon Dock.