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In a big victory for Mumbaikars fighting to save the city’s open spaces, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has called for reserving a uniform 4 square metre (sq m) of open space per capita across the city in its draft reservation policy, released on Monday, as part of the draft Development Plan (DP) 2014-2034. Last year, the BMC had received severe criticism after it had proposed to reduce this to 2 square metres in the island city, while retaining it at 4 sq m in the suburbs. On Monday, the BMC decided to retain this at 4 sq m across the city as prescribed in the previous DP.
However, in a major setback for residents of Aarey Colony, the civic body decided to allow the construction of a Metro carshed and also reserved land for a new botanical park and zoo in Aarey. Officials, however, defended the move, saying all other developments proposed in last year’s draft DP had been removed from the latest draft.
“Except Metro carshed and zoo, no commercial or other developments will be allowed. We have retained it as a no-development zone,” said Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta.
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However, a senior civic official said the reservation for a Metro carshed would depend on the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s stance. “If they want, it can be kept. If not, it will be removed,” added the official.
Also, the BMC decided to retain reservations provided by the Development Plan 1991-2011, despite encroachments on such plots either by slums or others. Civic officials said this was an attempt to send out a message that engineering encroachments on a plot on which a reservation existed would not lead to change in the reservation.
“We will change certain reservations, decided earlier because we have given permissions for development in some cases already,” said a civic official.
Also, access to plots with reservations would be provided by new roads, if such plots are inaccessible.
To improve the availability of affordable housing, the civic body announced in the draft DP that there would be reservations for the same on vacant plots of land that were reserved for ‘public housing, high density housing or housing for dishoused’ in the earlier DP. Such plots, reserved in the earlier DP and already encumbered by slums, will now be reserved for ‘rehabilitation and resettlement’.
“The rules on how to build affordable housing stock have not been decided yet. But we may ask plot owners to surrender the plot to the BMC. Then, either using the lottery system or some other way, we will generate affordable housing stock,” said a senior civic official.
In a new concept, the reservations or designations of the 1991 DP could also be combined with other reservations for maximum utilisation of a plot’s FSI, especially given the likelihood of increased FSI. Combined reservations will also be newly proposed, wherever possible.
As some reservations in the 1991 DP have not been useful, their purpose will be changed. Like, a reservation for a library might be changed to that for a reading room, a welfare centre to a care centre or an Aadhar Kendra etc, said an official.
The civic body also decided to remove reservations on cessed buildings in the island city. However, it will keep reservations on those buildings where land acquisition process is complete or going on.
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