“We have to make this city more open, efficient and accountable” — Anuj Bhagwati
Anuj Bhagwati
Good afternoon, fellow Rotarians. I am pleased to introduce Anuj Bhagwati and Pankaj Joshi, who will speak on “Mumbai — facts, myths and solutions”. Anuj is the Managing Director of A.T.E. Enterprises, which is headquartered in Mumbai. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Engineering Physics (B.S.) and Applied Physics (M.S.) respectively from Cornell University in the United States. He is passionate about social issues and is associated with non-profit organisations such as the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) in Mumbai and the Praja Foundation.
Pankaj Joshi is the Executive Director of UDRI. He is also a conservation architect in private practice and holds a Masters degree in Building Conservation from the United Kingdom. His work encompasses planning urban design, conservation architecture and interiors. He has served on the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and is on the Board of Governors of Heritage Conservation Society of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). — Rtn. Anar Shah
Anuj: Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to speak on a subject that we all are very passionate about — our city. Pankaj will answer your questions because I think he does that better than anybody. He is also a noted activist and last year, received the Hindustan Times for Mumbai — Celebrating Changemakers Award.
Mumbai is not an easy place to live in; approximately 20 million people live here and deal with an increasing number of problems each day. It’s perplexing because it is India’s foremost city, in terms of economic growth, and is home to many leading corporates as well as government and educational institutions.
We believe that the city’s problems can and must be tackled. At UDRI, we have worked hard to try and ensure that the city functions in an open, efficient and accountable manner. These are our real goals as we go forward.
We have a very bad housing situation — approximately 41.85% of the population are without proper housing facilities. Sanitation is another issue where, in some cases, there is just one dirty public toilet for ten thousand people. This is severely reflecting in our rankings. It is a serious issue because people and investments have started moving away from the city. Business leaders have to start thinking about these issues because even things such as the problems faced while commuting can affect the productivity of employees at work. So even if from a selfish point of view, we really need to look at the city’s issues as they impact various businesses.
The current approach to urban planning is actually a disaster. If you look at the Municipal Corporation’s existing land use plan there are around 3,000 mistakes. The slum population is excluded from the benefits of the development plan process. How can you ignore major and important parts of the city and still expect a coherent plan?
We have significantly less open spaces compared to other major cities. We have a very strange political structure, where we can’t really say who is in charge of the city because so many agencies control different parts of the city. They all finally report to the state government but there is no accountability.
Now I will move on to the myths. A myth that we often come across is that the slums have taken over the city. If you really look, there are some major slum clusters and no doubt, a lot of people live in these clusters — but it is not a very large percentage of the city’s land area. A lot of people are living in a very small land area compared to the rest of the city — it’s roughly 8% of the land area and 42% of the population.
People also feel that there is no space left for development. We would like to point out that there is space, on the eastern side. It might not be connected properly but it is not far from the city. We don’t think that Floor Space Index (FSI) alone is the answer. It doesn’t make sense in a city like ours because we have very high plot ratios. The second thing is that the city’s population density is very high. If you have a high plot ratio and you further load it by putting more FSI then the load on infrastructure will also be on the higher side. We need to focus on roads. It is easier to walk or use a bus, in terms of road utilisation, than using private vehicles. We have examples in India where sound strategies have yielded success. For instance, the Bus Rapid Transit System in Indore and Ahmedabad. In Mumbai, we have docklands that can be reused. We must encourage the use of public bicycles, like in New York. But sadly, we seem to be going away from such ideas. Another myth is that preservation of our heritage is not that important. But it is! Don’t we all go to Paris and London to witness their heritage?
Finally coming to the solutions — I think we first need to address the governance format of this city. We could start by centralising some of the authorities within the Municipal Corporation. We have not integrated our modes of transport. In most places of the world, you can take one mode of transport and shift seamlessly to another. But it’s impossible to do it here. We can also consider underground transportation.
A large number of planning principles have been formulated and put together by non-profit organisations along with UDRI and the plan has been sent to the Municipal Corporation, but they have not adopted it.
Lastly, we have to facilitate public participation in the affairs of our city because it is only then that we will do justice to our democracy. Thank you.
Some excerpts from the Q&A session:
Q: It may sound politically incorrect but can separating Mumbai from the rest of Maharashtra help?
Anuj: I think anything that facilitates a clear and accountable government will make sense — be it a separate state or any other reasonable way. There could be many ways to accomplish the same goal.
Q: What about points such as waste management, pollution free transportation and greenery?
Pankaj: We (UDRI) are happy to work with anybody who will work to serve these issues. As of now, nearly 200 organisations are working with us for the city’s development plan.
Q: Why is it that we cannot develop our waterways?
Pankaj: That is a possibility but the problem is that the only places in Mumbai where you have public access to waterfront is Chowpatty, Juhu and Marine Drive. But then we have the eastern waterfront, which can be used for transportation. Also, if the Trans Harbour Link is developed it would be a major solution to Mumbai’s travelling woes. Now, even the Dharavi redevelopment plan is a grave situation for the government, people and infrastructure. The government’s expert committee itself is at odds with what has been proposed and we think it has serious flaws. That’s why UDRI recently announced an international competition for ideas on how to redevelop Dharavi. You can visit www.reinventingdharavi.org to know more about it.