Cities within cities: The many faces of urban planning in Aapli Mumbai

At the entrance of the Jankalyan Society at Dahisar, near the lift, a blackboard asks residents to clear their pending maintenance charges. Signed by the building's Mahila Mandal Sudhar Samiti (MMSS) or resident women's group, the note also urges residents that they would be able to offer better services to residents if maintenance dues are paid on time.  Though a number of garbage bins lie below their building, the provisional committee members of the Society are convinced that their building is cleaner and better maintained compared to other buildings provided by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) Mumbai. Even so, at…

Mumbai was once known for local tournaments of games such as Wrestling, Kabaddi and Kho kho, which required minimal infrastructure and were popular among city's youth. They provided opportunities for the players to succeed at state, national level as well. Lack of open spaces has many repercussions. Particularly worrying is shrinkage of spaces that are dedicated for playing - playing any sports such as Football, Cricket, Hockey, Kho kho. Playgrounds help the younger generations stay fit, active, build team spirit and channelise their boundless energy positively. Organisations and people have dedicated themselves to save the green cover, preserve mangroves and…

Be it Fashion Street, Linking Road, Colaba Causeway or the buzzing Khau Gallis offering a variety of delicacies in various localities, Mumbai is known by its lively street markets run by hawkers. They have a distinct character that attracts shoppers from Mumbai and outside, and have even become a tourist attraction.  The book shops on pavements around Flora Fountain, which were an enduring source of knowledge, now invoke nostalgic memories for generations of book lovers. Similarly, Chor Bazaar is a source of art installations and furniture for art connoisseurs and collectors. Several useful services from typists to affidavit papers to…

The Bombay High Court (HC) recently came down heavily against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) demanding that BMC ensure that Mumbai’s footpaths be made walkable for pedestrians especially for handicapped and senior citizens. The HC suo moto asked BMC to clarify its policy on permitting various facilities on footpaths that hampered smooth movement of pedestrians. It took into consideration that walking on Mumbai footpaths has become dangerous as they are uneven, broken, disjointed or encroached and hence, unavailable to walk. Are footpaths in Mumbai dangerous? About 51% of all trips made by Mumbaikars are on foot. Even those who travel…

With 45 lakh vehicles in Mumbai including 14 lakh cars till January-2023, the city has a vehicular density of 2250 vehicles per km, the highest in the country, says the Maharashtra's Economic Survey report. Not surprisingly, the city is teeming with parked vehicles on its streets, footpaths, building compounds, bylanes, even its parking lots and is struggling to make space for the ever-increasing number of private vehicles that are making their way in the city.  Current status of parking spaces in the city Currently, Mumbai has provision for parking 27,295 vehicles in its 31 functional parking lots.  Apart from this,…

A triplex penthouse in Malabar Hills, over 18,000 square feet, eight car parking spots, and a view of the Arabian Sea: all for the price of Rs 252.5 crore. A penthouse in Three Sixty West tower in Worli, 30,000 square feet, plus a terrace of 5,000 square feet and free sale land of 1.3 lakh square feet, 14 parking spaces: for the slightly lower price of Rs 230 crore. These are outliers in Mumbai's - and India's - housing market, one dethroning the other for the spot of the most expensive property deal in the country. But due to the…

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to build three underground parking lots at Flora Fountain (with capacity of 176 cars), Worli (640 cars) and under a section of Raosaheb Patwardhan Park (228 cars), Bandra (West). Overall, the underground parking lots, meant to accommodate 1044 cars, will be built at the cost of about Rs 300 crores.  However, citizens have opposed this move vehemently leading to withdrawal of another proposal of underground parking beneath Juhu's Pushpa Narsee park (PNP).  Citizens mobilised to protest after a BMC press note on February 2, 2023 announced plans for underground parking underneath Patwardhan Park in…

Ravindra Jhagde, 42, has a story to underscore how well-respected his father’s job as an operator in Standard Mill, Prabhadevi, used to be. “My cousin’s husband had to pick between two job offers. He could be a teacher in a government school in or around Bhor in Pune, or he could be a mill worker in Mumbai like my dad. He chose the latter.” Jhagde is a vegetable and fruits wholesaler in Dadar, barely a stone’s throw from the slum home he grew up in, where his mum and sister operated a khanawal, a traditional Maharashtrian eatery, from where they…

Just breathe. Take a deep breath and let your body and mind relax. Easy enough to say but a difficult thing to do for a Mumbai resident. Given the severe lack of public open spaces (POS) or, to put it differently, spaces to breathe.  The first day of 2023 saw record crowds flocking to the city’s Zoo and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), as the city lacks enough healthy options for family outings. The Mumbai Zoo was so overflowing with over 33,000 visitors that at one point during the day, it closed its gates and refused to take in…

A major urban planning course correction is underway in Mumbai in the form of the redevelopment of the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls. While the large-scale redevelopment of the decaying century-old chawls is imminent, there are concerns about the plans to rehouse the 15,593 families living in 195 three-storey chawls spread across 86.98 acres in Worli, N.M. Joshi Marg and Naigaum in Central Mumbai. Though these families have been promised 500 sq ft housing units - two bedrooms, a hall and a kitchen - in skyscrapers, planners are sceptical about the development model chosen for them. The Worli residents will…