Mumbai Eastern Waterfront is the last chance for the city to save itself
What makes this public land holding extremely significant is that other than the A ward it lies adjacent to the most impoverished wards of the city which have minimal public amenities, facilities or utilities, and even more importantly, it lies at the interface between Mumbai city and the hinterlands of Mumbai Metropolitan Region which are projected to house a population of 30 million by the year 2030. This long harbour fronting land also forms Mumbai's first line of defence for any climate related disasters on the eastern side.
Hence, the EWF provides a huge opportunity for Mumbai, the last opportunity, to address deficiencies in the city and adjacencies, such as the much-required public open spaces, augmented public amenities, utilities and services, create employment, education, water transportation and healthcare facilities for both the city, the region and beyond. It is an opportune location for creating the link between Mumbai and the new airport in Navi Mumbai, the growing JNPA port land and the Panvel-Vasai multi-modal corridor and can tie together the local public transport, the water ferries to the Konkan, the Metro lines and the trans harbour links into a major hub for the city and region.
However, although the MbPA land is very much a part of Mumbai, it falls under the purview of central government due to the prior shipping operations, and now instead of being returned to the city, it is being planned autonomously by the central government without any heed to its importance of being integral to opening up the east-west movement between Mumbai and MMR. And this, despite planning being a state subject under the Constitution.
Technically, the port was given this land by the state in the late 1860s for the public activity of shipping. And now, with much of it no longer being used for its original purposes of shipping, sea trading and logistics operations, it is being used sub-optimally, and lot of it is either lying vacant or being squatted upon. So, since this land is no longer required for the original stated purpose, it should be returned back for the city's purposes. This was clearly stated in the then PM's directive, during the formation of JNPT. As the MbPA's activities shift to JNPT, the land of MbPA will be brought forward for greening of the Mumbai city which was woefully inadequate for the city's population even then.
Non-port usage allows for activities such as urban planning, infrastructure, economic, environmental, housing development, tourism etc. These are also provided for under the BMC Act of 1888 and the MR&TP Act of 1967, hence, it is not justified that the Port Trust overlook the non-port related usage, by overriding the constitutional provisions. All reports on revival of this public land including the University of York Dissertation Report (1997), EWF publication of UDRI (2002) and the Rani Jadhav Committee Report (2014) recommend integrating it symbiotically with Mumbai city.
Despite this, already the Masterplan of 2018 for the port land was an attempt to monetise this land. However, at least it retained the larger picture for EWF which was that it would seamlessly connect to the DP 2034 of Mumbai. But this most recent initiative of leasing land ad hoc for what is best perceived as under-valued monetary gain, virtually negates any efforts of the last two and half decades to integrate EWF with the city in a planned manner.
In line with the government's recent trends of monetising public land, even the MbPA's land is being doled out to private interests, under the guise of perceived public good, whilst rendering huge losses to the public exchequer. The emphasis seems to be more on commercial development for the purpose of profiteering, as opposed to the Rani Jadhav Committee (2014) that looked at commercial zones to build a fund for self-financing the plan.
Further, this ad hoc doling out of public land parcels for lease will only make the task of utility and service delivery extremely difficult, especially to industrial parcels of land with 100-year-old amenities and utilities, extinguishing any hope for the city to reorganise itself and provide open spaces, amenities, utilities to the exploding urban form of the inner city.
It is an earnest request to the decision makers to rethink this strategy in light of the stresses in the city and the inevitable climate change. Moreover, it really is a necessity to urge the State Government and local authorities i.e. the BMC to intervene and get the land back for Mumbai where it is so urgently required rather than letting it out to the highest bidder who will use it in the most lucrative commercial form with scant regard to public aspiration and requirement. Considering the lease is tagged at a highly under-valued average rate of less than ₹900/sq. ft., on the face of it, it appears to be designed as a bonanza for private interests.
If one looks at this from a global planning perspective, most major port cities across the world have learnt from past mistakes and calibrated their master plans – be it London, Hull or Liverpool in the UK, Baltimore or Seattle in USA or Rotterdam, Bilbao and Amsterdam in NW Europe or Singapore and Hong Kong in SE Asia – to reinterpret and redefine defunct dock areas to integrate them into the city as major green lungs for augmenting recreation, culture, education and hospitality or tourism uses.
Now it is time for Mumbai to confront this flawed usurping of city land. Mumbai needs to ensure that parochial planning and greed does not write the fate for this precious land as it once did for the defunct mill lands. We need to lay down the path for the city to rejuvenate itself by ensuring that the last opportunity does not become a missed one. This 18 km of contiguous land which is three times that of the mill lands, lying along the waterfront and has huge amounts of infrastructure in place should be rightfully adopted by the city to create a sustainable, appropriate and inclusive master plan, integrating Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Mumbai city.
Pankaj Joshi is a conservation architect and principal director, Urban Centre, Mumbai
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