The BMC’s request for proposal [RFP], inviting six private consultants to assist it in revising the city’s development plan [DP] for 2014-2034, suggests utilising private land in NDZs to meet the demand.
Environmentalists and urban planners have cautioned against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation [BMC] proposal to allow construction in no-development zones (NDZs). It would spell disaster for the city, they said.
The BMC’s request for proposal [RFP], inviting six private consultants to assist it in revising the city’s development plan [DP] for 2014-2034, suggests utilising private land in NDZs to meet the demand.
According to urban planners, it means environmentally sensitive areas, such as like salt pan lands, forest lands and low-lying lands, which are essential for disaster mitigation, will be explored for development.
The RFP states, “Historically, Mumbai has increased the land supply by reclaiming land from the sea, or reclaiming coastal wetlands - the Bandra-Kurla Complex being the last such effort - till 1991. However, with the coastal regulation zone [CRZ] rules coming into force in 1991, that avenue is now closed. Utilising private land in NDZs may have to be explored.”
Pankaj Joshi, executive director, Urban Design Research Institute, said, “All no-development zones in Mumbai are ecologically sensitive. The impact on environment needs to be assessed while exploring these areas. Mumbai being a coastal city, most of these NDZs are natural buffers for disaster mitigation. The new DP should not be formulated just to please the developers.”
Architect PK Das said, “No-development zones are natural and ecological zones. They are protected areas. No government or corporation should be allowed to tamper with these natural assets.”
Environmentalists Girish Raut and Rishi Aggarwal said that the BMC’s justification of its proposal, saying that NDZ does not stand for “never development zone”, showed its insatiable hunger for land.
“The same argument was given in 1995, when they opened reserved plots for slum rehabilitation. Then, they played mischief with the mill lands,” Raut said. “If the NDZs vanish, the city would be endangered.”
Aggarwal said, “The BMC will use this excuse to justify any use of NDZ. Juhu once was a no-development zone. Some of the NDZs can be developed. But our experience tells that DP plans have been more guided by real estate politics than good urban planning.”
26/7 may repeat: Urban researcher and architect Arvind Adarkar said there could be a repeat of the July 26, 2005, deluge, if private lands in NDZs were opened for development.
“What was expected was that the NDZ lands would have tree covers. They would hold the water, and then release it into the three rivers - Oshiwara, Mithi and Dahisar. Now, these rivers have shrunk into nullahs. The tree covers have gone owing to construction activities in the national park area, which has been a major target of real estate developers. Because of these factors, the suburbs were the worst affected during 26/7,” he said.
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