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Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Build satellite towns instead of giving extra FSI to get out of infrastructure 'chakravyuha': Gadgil
Mumbai: As mega urban centres like Mumbai and Pune are getting trapped in the 'chakravyuha' of flyovers and roads and reaching a saturation point, the government should stop giving additional floor space index (FSI) in these cities, senior Congress leader and urban planner Anant Gadgil has suggested. He also said that since soil is increasingly getting replaced by concrete in urban areas, the space for water to percolate into the ground is shrinking and leading to rising instances of flooding after rains. Talking to PTI, Gadgil, who was earlier a member of the state legislative council, said instead of giving additional FSIs, the government should focus on creating satellite townships like Navi Mumbai in the Mumbai-Pune-Nashik triangle to reduce the burden on the existing infrastructure. FSI represents the maximum allowable floor area a developer can construct on a specific piece of land. Both Mumbai and Pune have seen their infrastructure crumbling in heavy rains recently, Gadgil said, and suggested that the government should build good schools, colleges, hospitals in these satellite townships. Live Events The government can give land at a reasonable or lower rates to prominent companies to set up their offices with a restriction that at least 75 per cent of the employees must live in these satellite townships so that the issue of traffic load will not crop up, he said. "This kind of policy will benefit companies, builders, citizens and the government," Gadgil felt. "The more the FSI, the more the number of flats, leading to more cars. Subsequently, cities end up with more number of flyovers to overcome traffic jams. Crores of rupees have already been spent on these flyovers. Though the structural life of all these flyovers is more than 75 years, its functionality for all practical purposes is hardly 15 to 20 years," he said. He cited an example, saying when the Eastern Freeway connecting Chembur to D'Mello Road in south Mumbai was built over a decade ago, there was hardly any car on it. "Today, at peak hours, there is bumper-to-bumper traffic on it. In other words, we are getting trapped in the 'chakravyuha' of roads and flyovers," Gadgil said. Mumbai came to a standstill, not in the peak of the monsoon but only in the third week of May due to slashing unseasonal rains, he said. "The moment the rain stops, Mumbaikars start blaming BMC , their favourite target. No one knows why flooding takes place when the authorities declare before monsoon that they have cleaned the drainage system well in advance," he said. In Mumbai, while constructing a new building, every architect/developer has to show sufficient parking spaces in the plan for approval, Gadgil said. Prior to 1991, only one car space per four to five 3-BHK flats was enough. Post-1991, when India began opening up its economy, the ratio went up to approximately 1 to 2 car spaces per 3-BHK flat. "Today it is approximately 1 to 2 car spaces per 2-BHK and 2 to 3 spaces per 3-BHK flat," he said. "Three to four decades ago, Mumbai's well-planned areas like Khar-Bandra west, Sion-Chembur, Parsee Colony Dadar, Sewree-Wadala had at the most 3 to 4-storey buildings with garden/soil/plantation all around. Today, with 30 to 40-storey buildings built on these very plots, garden-plantation has vanished, replaced by concrete for parking, covering the entire ground floor in every new building," he said. 'But what people did not foresee was that soil is replaced by concrete. Then how can one expect water to penetrate inside the soil?" Gadgil asked. He recalled raising the issue in the legislative council a couple of years ago. "I had said Mumbaikars have lost 10 lakh square feet and Punekars 2 lakh square feet of soil to concrete for parking. The then environment minister announced that 30 per cent of the ground floor parking area in new buildings will remain non-concrete. But no such rule has been formulated by the government so far," he said. Gadgil said he was the one who initially floated the idea of a Coastal Road in Mumbai along its coastline. Mumbai being a linear city, with traffic only in south-north direction, he had suggested that east-west of the metropolis be linked at regular intervals through elevated railway like metro or monorail. Gadgil said he had suggested that only 4 to 5-storey buildings on Mumbai's sea front be allowed while on the other hand, skyscrapers can be built inside the city with sufficient open space between two buildings so that the sea breeze can freely flow in controlling the pollution. "But exactly the reverse of that has happened. Today, Mumbaikars have seen buildings rising from 5 storeys to 50 storeys and on the other hand they even saw some of the buildings collapsing," he added. Gadgil said he raised this issue in the legislature and pointed out that apart from structural issues, in many such cases, the flat owner employed unqualified people for internal renovations who ended up breaking beams and walls, resulting in building collapse incidents. "The current CM, then replying to my debate, announced the state government will bring a law making it mandatory to have an architect's certificate even for internal renovations of flats. Today, BMC officials say they have not even heard of such a thing as no GR is issued till date," he said.
United News of India
a day ago
- Health
- United News of India
Maha: Congress MP Gaikwad expresses shock over condition of health services in suburban Mumbai
Mumbai, May 31 (UNI) City Congress president and MP Varsha Gaikwad on Saturday expressed shock over the current condition of suburban health services in Mumbai and questioned where did the Health department's Rs 7K crore fund go. Responding to questions after visiting Bhabha Hospital in suburban Bandra and interacting with citizens there, she said, "The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is one of the richest municipal corporations in the country. The Corporation presented a budget of Rs 74,000 crore this year, of which Rs 7,000 crore has been allocated for the Health department, but the condition of suburban health services in Mumbai is very bad. If even basic facilities cannot be provided to patients, then where exactly did the municipal corporation's money go." The BMC had assured that it would not inaugurate the hospital without providing facilities like cathlab, nephrology, neurology, cardiac and blood bank in this building, but till date these facilities have not been started. In 2024-25, a provision of Rs 12 crore was made for medicines, which has been reduced to Rs six crore this year. Tenders for medicines have not been floated for 14 months. There are ICU, trauma ICU, and pediatric ICU departments in the intensive care unit, but there are no doctors available. Also, the number of beds in the intensive care unit is very less compared to the hospital beds. Furthermore, 2D UCO machine is not available, pathology facility is also closed, she complained. There are no facilities available in these suburban hospitals for tests like CT scan, MRI, she alleged and said if such tests are required, patients have to go out at a huge expense. The state government-appointed administrator in BMC is playing with the health of Mumbaikars, Ms Gaikwad alleged and demanded that the state government and the BMC administrator should answer why Mumbaikars are not getting good health facilities despite the provision of Rs 7,000 crore. "This money is going into whose pockets," she asked. UNI VKB SS
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
BMC selects RIL to develop open spaces along Coastal Road
Mumbai: Nearly a year after Mumbai's Coastal Road was opened to traffic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has selected Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to develop 53 hectares of reclaimed open space along the road. The company will take at least three to four months to prepare a plan, following which work on realising new open spaces along the road from Priyadarshini Park to Worli will commence, said sources in the civic body. On Thursday, BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani signed the letter of intent (LoI) outlining terms of the deal between BMC and RIL. 'Reliance was one of the companies that evinced interest in developing open spaces along the entire stretch of the Coastal Road,' said Gagrani. Another official from the Coastal Road department said RIL was the only firm that met the requirements specified in the call for expressions of interest (EOI). 'It was also the only company that had experience in developing such a large tract of open space,' the official said. The company will take at least 3-4 months to revert to the BMC with a design, said Gagrani. 'We will approve the design after discussions, perhaps involving external landscape architects,' he mentioned. HT reached out to RIL for comments on the development, but did not get any response from the company. Initially, the BMC had planned to develop open spaces along the ₹13,000-crore Coastal Road of its own accord. The plan was rolled back due to estimated additional expenditure of ₹400 crore and increased capital expenditure on big ticket projects including north-ward extension of the Coastal Road. In January this year, the civic body issued a call for expressions of interest (EoI) to develop and maintain the open spaces for a period of 30 years, extendable by another 30 years. The open spaces would include gardens, parks, waterbodies, and cycle and pedestrian walkways, and commercial activities would be allowed subject to permission from the Supreme Court, the EoI mentioned. The move to allow commercial activities subject to court approval irked many Mumbaikars, who saw it as a bid to privatise these spaces. Meanwhile, an online petition seeking an urban forest all along the Coastal Road has garnered over 40,000 signatures. Nandini Chabria, a member of the core team behind the proposal to create the urban forest, said the 53-hectare open space could be divided into three zones. The seaward side could have wind-breaker and salt-tolerant trees like Kewda, Sultan Champa, and Powderpuff mangrove while the side adjacent to the carriageway could have evergreen and deciduous trees like Jamun, Bakul and Amaltas. The zone in the middle could have shade-giving trees and flowering shrubs to attract butterflies, she said. 'This is a rare opportunity for us to turn the open space into a rich, climate-smart green zone,' said Chabria. 'Rising temperatures in the city, increase in sea levels and deteriorating air quality warrant the development of such a zone.' While the proposal was submitted to the BMC this week, municipal commissioner Gagrani said it would 'definitely be considered' while finalising the plan for the open space. Half hectare excluded A little over half a hectare – equivalent to the size of a football field – has been left out of the 53-hectare open space that will be developed and maintained by RIL. This includes the 3,000 sqm and 2,300 sqm sought by the Breach Candy Club and the Breach Candy Hospital, respectively. Both institutions claimed the portions fell within the area between the high tide line and the low tide line, and they had gone underwater over time. The hospital has been given its share as per instructions from the collector as it holds the lease for the reclaimed portion and wants to convert it into a parking lot. The Breach Candy club, which also owns the reclaimed portion it had sought, are still in the process of claiming it. 'Though these portions have been excluded from the open space, no built-up construction will be allowed on them due to the existing reservations on the plots,' said an official from the Coastal Road department. These portions would likely be out of bounds for the public, the official added.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Aaditya: BMC will eventually burden citizens with user fee
Mumbai: A day after BMC said it had deferred rollout of its proposed user fee for solid waste collection in the wake of an up to 15% hike in property taxes, Worli MLA and former minister Aaditya Thackeray pointed out the plan has only been postponed and not cancelled. "This tax is going to be levied on Mumbaikars, to indirectly make up for the Rs 2,500-crore expense for cleaning up Deonar [landfill] for Adani Group," he said. Slamming BMC for raising property taxes, he said, "Uddhav Thackerayji's govt cancelled property tax for homes up to 500sqft unconditionally. Now, BJP govt is raising property taxes... Leaving Mumbai taxed heavily and in a mess—that is the BJP strategy." BMC had proposed a user fee ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 7,500 a month under the new solid waste bylaws. Past attempts to levy the charge had faced opposition from Sena (UBT) and Congress. tnn
News18
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Sonakshi Sinha Slams Mumbai Civic Authorities Over Potholes: 'Shee Yaar... Too Bad'
Last Updated: Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha took a sharp and sarcastic dig at Mumbai's crumbling infrastructure during the monsoon season. As the monsoon season rolls into Mumbai with its usual fury, bringing along familiar tales of flooded roads and crater-sized potholes, Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha has weighed in—with her trademark sarcasm intact. The Dabangg star took to Instagram to share a video of an innovative road construction technology allegedly being used in Germany. This futuristic method enables roads to absorb water, preventing waterlogging and eliminating potholes—something Mumbaikars can only dream of. In her Instagram story, Sonakshi wrote, 'Whaaat??? You don't dig all year every year instead of finding a 'concrete' solution while the city is underwater in the rains?? Shee yaar… that's too bad (sic)." Her cheeky tone was unmistakably directed at municipal authorities who, year after year, fail to address the city's crumbling infrastructure despite repeated public outcry. Sonakshi's comment comes on the heels of yet another monsoon-triggered infrastructural collapse in Mumbai. Areas such as Napean Sea Road and Andheri were submerged under water within hours of the first proper downpour. The chaos led to traffic jams, stranded commuters, and a renewed chorus of criticism directed at the city's civic bodies. Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, too, joined in the criticism. Sharing a video of the flooded Napean Sea Road—home to some of India's wealthiest residents—he wrote on X (formerly Twitter): 'Napean Sea Road, home to India's top billionaires, top ministers & officials, chokes in one shower. So do Delhi, Bengaluru and other cities, year after year (sic)." The uproar only reiterates a growing sentiment among citizens and celebrities alike—that Indian cities, despite their status and stature, remain woefully unprepared for annual weather patterns. Meanwhile, on the professional front, Sonakshi Sinha has a packed slate. She will headline the psychological thriller Nikita Roy, co-starring Arjun Rampal and Paresh Rawal, scheduled to hit theatres on June 27, 2025. Additionally, she has wrapped up filming her Telugu debut Jatadhara, where she stars opposite Sudheer Babu. First Published:
