MUMBAI, JULY 10: Restoration of existing open spaces through citizen participation clearly outscored large-scale, reckless reclamation as architect Hafeez Contractor yet again outlined his grandiose plans for the Western Waterfront Development on Saturday.In the course of a seminar on the `Western Waterfront Development and Citizens' Movements in Mumbai', the packed Coomerswamy Hall at the Prince of Wales Museum witnessed a heated debate over Contractor's dream scheme to create 486 acres of an additional open space as a green zone along Mumbai's western coast.Warning of the ill-effects of reclamation, Professor V Subramaniam from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Powai, informed that the ``submarine slope along the waterfront is steep and would call for enormous landfill.'' In view of the severe erosion in Versova caused by the Backbay reclamation, any disturbance to the coastal stretch in question would only lead to problems, he said. He also felt that as no two coastlines were similar, thecomparison of Mumbai to Singapore was meaningless.Later, facing a battery of questions, Contractor went on the defensive. In a seemingly inadequate reply, he told environmental activist Bakul Khote, ``I don't like your kind of negativism. It is not a plan for the rich alone and if every new plan is approched with a closed mind, when I become your age, we (the citizens of Mumbai) will still have nothing''.To another query his response was that it was his business was ``to make plans, not see how it is implemented or maintained.'' According to him, the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) regulation was meant to protect fragile coastal areas but it was ``not made for Mumbai or urban areas''.Meanwhile, several residents' groups spoke of their struggle in securing the requisite permissions from the government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to maintain local open spaces. Architect P K Das of the Mumbai Nagrik Vikas Manch, who had also come up with a master plan to restore western waterfront, opinedthat Minister for Public Works Nitin Gadkari should visit each neighbourhood and disburse funds for developing open spaces as these core areas are more important.``Individual efforts need to be reinforced and citizen committees be allowed to form a core group enable planning with the BMC on how to develop open spaces,'' Das said. He also stressed that each area should be able to access its neighbourhood map so as to know ``what reservation is where''.Architect Rahul Mehrotra observed that Contractor's plan had some strength which needed to be extracted. Top
