Consultants believe that an estimated 7,000 acres of land is waiting to be freed for commercial and residential development
Consultants believe that an estimated 7,000 acres of land is waiting to be freed for commercial and residential development
Spread over 600 acres, redevelopment of defunct textile mills have offered a big opportunity for the city’s renewal plan.
With the Supreme Court order upholding the amendment to Development Control Rule 2001 (mill owners would share only one third of the vacant land as against entire land on redeveloping a defunct mill with the public authorities for open space and housing), where will the city get the much needed land for its makeover?
While real estate consultants and planners believe there is a shortage of land in the city, they say there is an estimated over 7,000 acres of land — salt pan, Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) and privately owned (see box) — waiting to be developed for commercial and residential purpose.
“Several tracts of land are held by railways, private owners, or in litigations.” Pranay Vakil, chairman of global real estate consultants Knight Frank India questioned whether land availability and its rising price was a real problem, or an artificially created one. Vakil was speaking at a day-long national conference on affordable housing organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and state government on Sunday.
“Take the case of Dharavi, the largest slum. Currently occupying 360 acres of land, the slum’s redevelopment (global tenders have recently been called) will generate 350 million sq ft of land. Of this, 200 million sq ft of land will come in the open market with the balance 150 million sq ft will be used to re-house 57,000 slum households. That means each household will acquire a property worth Rs6.97 lakh,” he added.
Ahmedabad-based urban planner Dr Bimal Patel suggested that instead of acquiring lands for public reservations, the governments could adopt the Town Planning Scheme as followed in Gujarat. “After totalling all the land in one sq km, a certain percentage of area, say 20 per cent required for roads and other reservations, could be deleted equally from each of the individual land owners. By doing so, not only will a land owner be involved in the entire process, but the government will also not have to go through a lengthy process for acquiring land,” said Patel.Urban planner VK Phatak believed the key to planning the city’s renewal lies in rationalising the floor space index (FSI) of any development.
FSI is the ratio of the total floor area of a building to the gross area of the lot on which the building is located. For example, a floor space index (FSI) of 2.0 would indicate that the total floor area of a building could be up to 2 times the gross area of the lot on which it is located.
“Take for example, developing the corridor along the Versova Andheri Ghatkopar rail corridor. Every station has a capacity to absorb higher development. So while permitting higher levels of development, redevelop the entire area within one km of Andheri station, which is the main transit point to allow better accessibility,” Phatak added.
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