‘What Mumbai needs is 10 more Oval Maidans, if possible’

As a young boy, I would often walk in the areas around Malabar Hill gardens, at a time when even the Priyadarshini Park had not been built. This was around the late 1970s or so, when there were many pathways that went from hanging gardens, down to Walkeshwar through the forest. However, in the late 1980s, owing to complaints over miscreants who would use drugs and brew liquor, the hydraulic department had built walls and fenced off the areas. Since then, this area had been closed to the public for the past 40 years, but I would still venture into the forest zone and explore it.

One day, while on our walk some years back, my wife and I jumped the fence and went inside. That’s when it struck me. Having a 12.5-acre forest in the middle of the city should be shared with the public. But then there was the question of how we could make the area accessible, since the forest is very delicate with lots of greenery, fauna and there were also snakes. That’s how the idea of a raised walkway was conceptualised so as to ensure that people are not really touching the forest floor so that the animals, the flora and fauna remain undisturbed. This was also a hill slope, and we didn’t want to obstruct the flow of rainwater.

After this, we got in touch with the local citizens’ forum, who loved the idea. We also sought corporate backing to ensure that we also had the funds. With this strategy, we got in touch with the then tourism and environment minister, Aaditya Thackeray, who liked the idea and gave us the go ahead, and who recommended it to the BMC.

We were very keen on building the project very slowly as often during the process of construction, a lot of forest gets destroyed. So, we didn’t allow any heavy machinery, and we didn’t want to put the pressure of time, rather we wanted the quality to be good.

2) The project is gaining a lot of positive response with consecutive houseful weekends. What do you think has appealed to the public the most?

Since its inception, one thing we found was that whomever we showed this project to, they liked it immediately. There was no controversy because it was such a simple thing. See, ultimately, what people are also really loving about this walkway is that they are being allowed to walk in nature.

Our objective was also to make the structure as simple as possible. Elegant, but simple. We didn’t want to compete with nature. Nature is the hero and we were just the supporting cast. I think that is what people are liking. That, we are allowing them to experience nature in a very elegant and simple way without attempting to show off. We are not trying to make things gaudy. For instance, the railing too was just for the purpose of safety, without trying to take the attention away from the actual hero. Another thing which people seem to be enjoying is the fact that the walkway winds through the forest and we didn’t cut a single tree. Furthermore, because of the nature of the forest over there, the view changes all the time.

3) In a space-starved city like Mumbai, do you see potential for similar open spaces across other pockets?

For the city, a huge potential lies in the location along the eastern waterfront. There’s nearly 600 acres there, which is with the Mumbai Port Trust. There’s a huge opportunity there.

Unfortunately, what the government did is that they made Mumbai Port Trust the planning authority and gave them the authority to plan whatever they wanted. Instead, it should have looked at what the city and citizens wanted. This is a public land, which should ultimately be used by the public. This land can, therefore, open a huge opportunity which can really transform the city.

4) Speaking of huge land parcels, nearly 70 hectares of reclaimed land along the coastal road has been earmarked for public open spaces. Currently, BMC is finalising private agencies for development of this space. What kind of potential does this area hold for Mumbai?

This opportunity of 175 acres of open space, including the promenade, has come for the city after nearly 200 years. So, we have to place this space very carefully.

Currently, there is a chronic need for open space in Mumbai, for the toddlers to the elderly. For context, Mumbai has an open space of about 1.42 square metres per person. As per our national urban planning policy, we are supposed to have a minimum of 10 and an optimum of 20. For example, London has nearly 58. So, we are way below world standards. And even this open space is inevitably spread out. For instance, the older parts of the city, say starting from the CSMT station and heading northwards, between the western and the central railway lines, are densely populated and have no open space. There, the buildings are right up to the roads and even the neighbourhood has very little garden space. On the other hand, the western side of the city has lower population density as well as higher open spaces.

Furthermore, almost 60 percent of Mumbai’s population lives in the slums, who have no open spaces at all.

So, if the city is now getting 175 acres of open space, we need to look at questions of who this open space is for and how we plan it.

While we need more trees, the idea of making it a forest, as some petitions have called for, may not be very accessible. What we also need is completely flexible open spaces like maidans. In fact, we need 10 Oval Maidans if possible. We don’t need fancy fountains, manicured gardens etc. We need space where people can kick the ball, play cricket, stroll etc.

While we can have 25 per cent space reserved as green spaces, the rest of it should be simple, open and more than anything else, inclusive. The correct way would be for the BMC to plan the designs, in consultation with the public.

5) Maharashtra, its towns and villages, is witnessing a largescale infrastructure churn. How do you look at urban planning in the state?

In the way that we have our administrative set up, planning in every city of the state is defined as per the Maharashtra Town Planning Act, which lays down processes and plans. Now, that act was published in 1967 and it is based on the London Master planning principles of 1934. After they published it in 1934, the London master planning plan has been revised at least five times, and they have radically changed how they plan.

But we have not changed anything in it. In fact, the word ‘environment’ does not figure in the Maharashtra Town Planning Act. This act largely looks at land use planning where they plan residential zones, industrial zones, commercial zones etc. They don’t take into account the topography, contours of the land or the water ways, transportation networks etc. Essentially, it is as if you went to a hospital and they only did treatment and procedures as per what they did in 1967.

So, our urban planning policy itself is completely outdated. Until they are not reformed, we will never get ideal planning as they are not based on the modern, contemporary principles of planning. Now, people globally are talking about 15-minute cities where everything is within walking distance. However, the law in the state does not provide for it.

Meanwhile, villages are governed by the panchayats that don’t have the budget and vision for largescale planning. In villages, the areas which are growing are the farmlands which are on the outskirts of the village. However, in Maharashtra, there is no specific government body or department that looks at a village which is booming, and plans designs for it. They look largely at the major towns. Even the district planning authority, which exists, doesn’t really have major powers to plan a network for the growing villages.