Building Boomers and Fragmentation of Space in Mumbai
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Caste in the 21st Century: From System to Elements PERSPECTIVE to repay the private sector for constructing Building Boomers and housing units not in cash but with TDR. These along with other factors have created Fragmentation of Space a certain geographical bias wherein major- ity of the PAP housing is being constructed in Mumbai in the M ward. Of the total 50,024 housing units constructed for PAPs, 32,653 units (65.27 per cent) are in M ward. Given this Navtej Nainan preference of location, I ask the following questions: (1) Which factors contribute The Maharashtra government has umbai is aiming at rapidly trans- to making M ward a rehabilitation ward? extended the transfer of forming itself into a “global city”. (2) Which are the TDR receiving wards and development rights instrument – MWith Singapore and Shanghai how does the host community react to the as role models, the city’s elite have placed building boom in their neighbourhoods? a market mechanism originally infrastructure on their priority list [Bombay The data used in this article was collected used to provide public amenities First 2003]. Almost daily, newspapers during 2005-07; secondary sources include – for constructing houses for carry reports on the proposed metro rail, the Municipal Corporation of Greater project-affected persons. Data airport expansion or yet another flyover. Mumbai’s (MCGM) TDR data base; reports In the last decade itself, the city has laid of World Bank; the web page of MMRDA, indicates that a majority of these new railway tracks, constructed more primary data was collected through field townships have come up in a city than 50 flyovers and laid new roads, under work and group discussions in two of the ward where many of the poor two partly World Bank-financed projects: PAP townships of M ward: Lalu Bhai Com- live. In a situation where the real the Mumbai Urban Transport Project pound and Vashi naka as these were the (MUTP) and the Mumbai Urban Infrastruc- only townships which were relatively estate market is driven by the ture Project (MUIP). As several stretches fully occupied. Interviews were also con- profit motive, unregulated use of of the road and railway corridors were ducted with officers ofMCGM and MMRDA. the TDR has the potential to cause occupied by slums, the implementation of Place and Segregation in Mumbai further fragmentation of already both these projects has led to relocation of slum-dwellers. Successful and timely Originally a group of seven islands inhabited socially and economically rehabilitation and resettlement of these mainly by the fishing community and segregated urban spaces. slum-dwellers is an important prerequisite palm toddy tappers, Mumbai (area: 445.86 for carrying out these expansions. The sq km) as we know it today is the result of Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Develop- reclaiming land from the sea and eventually ment Authority (MMRDA) under the leader- linking it to the mainland. With fishing ship of the chief minister of the state has villages dotting the many beaches and sea been appointed as the implementing fronts, Mumbai still retains traces of its agency. It has successfully constructed some original flavour. Some of these fishing 50,000 housing units each of 225 sq feet villages and “gauthans” (thickly populated area to rehabilitate these project-affected old habitation sites) are homes to local persons (PAPs). If the PAPs from the Roman Catholic converts who prefer to Mumbai airport expansion project are in- call themselves “East Indians”. cluded, the total figure of such displaced Over time, the south-western coast of would be 1,30,000 households making Mumbai emerged as the space in which this exercise perhaps the largest ever the rich and powerful of the city live – forced relocation in modern times. particularly wards A, D and G/south. The Data indicates that a majority of the PAP cotton textile mills and ghettoes of mill housing has been constructed with the workers were located in E, G and F wards participation of the private sector using which now lie in central Mumbai. Many the transfer of development rights (TDR) Muslim families are said to have come in instrument. The involvement of private from rural India and settled in the E and C sector in delivering public goods has well wards around 1947, during the bloodshed Navtej Nainan ([email protected]) is known problems such as externalities that accompanied the Partition. These two currently a PhD scholar with the University and free riders. However, the situation wards are still quite densely populated of Amsterdam. here is complicated as the state decided and have many old residential buildings Economic & Political Weekly EPW may 24, 2008 29 PERSPECTIVE as well. Together, wards A to G came to be consisted of cotton textile mills located in the deve lopment plan, absence of funds called the “island city”, drawn from the the south-central part of the island city, and lengthy procedures as reasons enough erstwhile seven islands which lie in this towards the eastern part. By the next to substitute the previous land acquisition part of the city. decade, industry was a substantial employer method with TDR. This network of actors During British rule, the port and related in Mumbai, but the nature of industrial who push for higher population densities services were situated in the south-eastern activity had by this time widened to include and increased market-led mechanisms to side of the island. After independence, chemicals and engineering sectors. The deliver amenities and services to the city, I Trombay in the north eastern M ward population of the city had been rapidly call the “building boomers”. attracted large-scale state-owned companies growing from the 1950s and reached a The 1991 city development plan aimed in the fertiliser and petroleum sectors figure of 82,27,382 in 1981. Around the at reversing the direction of some of the while the other emerging suburbs in the 1980s, the objective of the Maharashtra earlier plans. Moreover, recognising the north-eastern part of the city saw the government’s urban policy was to control location benefits of the island city, it was setting up of engineering, chemicals and the growth of the city, decongest it and also decided to allow new offices to pharmaceuticals factories, mainly along encourage industry to move out. Thus, replace former industrial units. The 1991 the suburban route of the central railway decongestion of the island city and shifting development control regulations borrowed and in areas such as Kurla and the eastern industries outside the urban boundaries some revolutionary ideas from the US, part of Andheri. were two strategies used to cope with the such as TDR and increased floor space In the early 1980s the upper classes had growing urban population [MCGM 1985]. index (FSI) in some zones and recycling of begun to reside in the western half of the The growth of the services and financial industrial land. Together, these policy H ward as it hugged the western seaboard sector in Mumbai from the late 1980s changes created a potent mix which of Mumbai and had the better of the city’s onwards gave birth to a new middle class. liberated land from its earlier stringent two railway systems. Moreover, this locality Employment in the tertiary sector (finance, zoning regime. was not disturbed by the noise and pollu- insurance, real estate, business services, tion of factories. D ward was also largely social and personal services) had doubled Transferable Development Right filled up by the rich and powerful for similar between 1980 and 1998 [MMRDA 2003]. FSI (also known as floor area ratio) is a reasons [Ramasubban and Crook 1995]. The middle class in Mumbai over the certain permissible land to construction This historical background has led to last decade has grown to be very active. ratio. FSI1 is also known as development an uneven development of the city and is They have used their voice, formed right, as it prescribes how much construc- reflected in real estate prices, shown in organisations and have also litigated to tion is permitted on a certain piece of Figure 1. Even today, the southern tip of the influence policies related to relocating land. TDR is a transferable development island (wards A and B) remains the most street hawkers, tame municipal labour right of a particular piece of land which expensive part of the city, followed by the unions, and joined hands with the elite to cannot be realised on the same land western coastal wards (G south, H west, create a powerful neoliberal lobby which because the land and the development K west and east). Next come the new, emerg- is pushing for a global Mumbai [Baud on it are protected. ing localities in the north-western suburbs. and Nainan 2007]. In the US, TDR was used to protect agri- Some of the lowest real estate prices are to Along with the growth of the middle cultural lands and heritage structures, be found in the eastern suburbs particularly class, from the mid-1980s, a small group while permitting the land owners to use in L, M and T wards – all of which have of real estate property developers who the development potential of these lands industrial units as well. Real estate prices wanted to restructure the land market to on another piece of land elsewhere in the clearly define social demography of the trigger a building boom teamed up with city or even sell it as TDR. The TDR instru- city [Logan and Molotch 1990]. select bureaucrats and politicians and, ment separates the land from its develop- Figure 1: Ward-wise Average Land Prices 2005 (Residential land prices per sq mt in ‘000) ment rights and makes it transferable to 160 another location.