Oppn slams MbPA on waterfront lease move, says citizens must benefit instead

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

MUMBAI: Opposition parties on Tuesday slammed the Mumbai Port Authority's decision to lease 215 acres of its land for up to 30 years, effectively shelving the grand plan to develop the eastern waterfront with world-class amenities such as entertainment and recreational spaces, a state-of-the-art marina, convention centres, water transport facilities, and a global business district. Mumbai, India. Aug 11, 2025: Erstwhile HPLC plot of Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) property opposite BPT Hospital in Wadala. MPT is inviting expressions of interest from eligible parties for leasing prime land parcels for industrial and commercial purposes on a long-term basis of 30 years.Mumbai, India. Au 11, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said, 'Why should someone sitting in New Delhi's government offices decide what happens to Mumbai's east coast? In 2013, Uddhav Thackeray ji placed a presentation in front of Mumbaikars, to get our east coast back from the MbPA. A committee was set up by (Nitin) Gadkari ji, which went on endlessly and was then abandoned.'
The Sena (UBT) leader added, 'For a decade, the Union government has been harassing Mumbaikars with notices to evict them under the Public Premises Act, many of whom have been here as a family since pre-Independence times. Why should this land belong to the Mumbai Port Authority and not the BMC? Why shouldn't the BMC and our city earn revenue from it?'
Thackeray alleged, 'The MbPA wants to evict fisherfolk at Sassoon Dock, is stalling redevelopment of BDD Chawl at Sewri, and now it wants to earn from our city.'
The Congress too objected to the move. Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, 'There must be an investigation into who will ultimately benefit from leasing the properties. This land belongs to India. Mumbai city was developed because of its ports.''
Clyde Crasto, national spokesperson of the NCP (SP), remarked, 'As shipping minister, Nitin Gadkari had asked MbPA to prepare a comprehensive plan for the holistic redevelopment of the waterfront. This piecemeal approach does not work for the city. There must also be transparency. Mumbai needs open spaces, which were in the original plan.'
The eastern waterfront plan received a boost when Nitin Gadkari took over as Union transport and ports minister, after the NDA government assumed power in 2014. A committee was set up under then MbPA chairperson Sanjay Bhatia, to develop 966.3 hectares of idle land along the city's east coast, between Colaba and Wadala.
The committee submitted its plan and, in December 2018, the MbPA (then known as Mumbai Port Trust) was appointed as the special planning authority for the project. The plan was, however, put on the backburner when Gadkari lost the ports portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle in 2019.
The MbPA, which owns most of the land along this stretch, has instead decided to lease 215 acres along the coast for up to 30 years, exclusively for industrial and commercial purposes. In doing so, it aims to earn a minimum ₹814.04 crore in revenue annually. The port authority published an Expression of Interest (EOI) on Monday, offering 28 properties – 27 plots in Mumbai and one in Thal in Raigad district. The last date for submission is September 11.
These properties include a 22-hectare plot at Princess Dock near the domestic cruise terminal; a 1.2-lakh sq m plot that once housed an HPCL facility in Wadala; a 42,955-sq m plot that used to house warehouses of the Food Corporation of India in Wadala; the Sewri Timber Pond, a cargo storage yard measuring 1.04 lakh sq m near the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link; among various other buildings it owns.
Urban planners pointed to another major urban renewal plan, which aimed to balance public amenities, affordable housing and commercial development that was not implemented as intended. This was the plan to redevelop vast tracts of defunct mill land in Lower Parel, while safeguarding the interests of the mill workers.
The plan, conceptualised in 1996, had recommended dividing the land into three portions – allocating one part for open spaces and amenities, another for mass public housing, and the third for commercial utilisation, which could be sold by mill owners.
But when the plan was implemented, the then government decided that the three portions would be carved out of the open space on the mill properties, not the total land housing the mills. The mill owners then sold the space occupied by mills, giving rise to the largely commercial precinct we see today. Planners fear the eastern waterfront plan may meet the same fate.
Will the waterfront go the Lower Parel way?
Following the MbPA's decision to lease its idle land and structures, urban planners are asking whether the eastern waterfront will go the Lower Parel way. Now a busy commercial district that includes some residential layouts, Lower Parel was once the beating heart of Mumbai's textile trade. When the mills fell silent in the 1980s, vast stretches of prime land in Central Mumbai began to lie idle.
Intending to monetise it, the government asked noted architect and urban planner, Charles Correa, to prepare a plan for the holistic development of the mill land, in 1996. Correa recommended dividing the land into three parts – one going to the mill owners for commercial development; the second for mass housing, for the mill workers; and the third for public amenities and infrastructure.
The plan was never implemented in its original form. It was instead tweaked in favour of mill owners, who received way more than the land assigned to them. The result is the haphazard development of the precinct in the last 10 to 1 5 years, with largely commercial highrises dotting the skyline. The district lacks supporting infrastructure and the public amenities citizens were once promised.
Today, narrow streets and traffic chaos defines Lower Parel, congested railway station areas and inadequate parking lots. Activists and planners fear the area under the MbPA, which was meant to be developed in a planned manner to the benefit of citizens, might meet the same fate.