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| Also see : Administrative Wards of Mumbai, Government Acts(By Topic), Government Schemes |
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NEW-AGE IDEAS TO DEVELOP MUMBAI
‘Take Population Pattern And Growing Civic Needs Into Account While Planning’ ...Sharad Vyas | TNN The BMC is looking at twenty-first-century solutions for twenty-firstcentury problems as it goes about formulating a new development plan for Mumbai.
A development plan is the frame that planners keep in mind as they go about adding to the city’s infrastructure. A development plan is used for two decades and, after this time runs out, a new development plan replaces the old one. This is what is happening right now; the existing development plan, in place since the early 1990s, will be replaced by a new set of guidelines in 2013.
Mumbai, as it continues on its path of rapid growth, will need more space — for dumping grounds and slum-rehabilitation projects — more water and a better sewerage system. A panel, comprising BMC additional municipal commissioners and engineers and former bureaucrats, has identified these and other key sectors which will have to cope with growing demands. It has recommended, for the first time, that the BMC look at several new factors — like population pattern and holistic development of entire zones — to arrive at solutions.
“The need for space cannot be denied,’’ a senior BMC official said. There is an urgent need for dumping grounds, for instance, because of the massive amount of debris that new infrastructure projects (like Metro) will generate. Space is also needed to construct more water tunnels and sewer lines to
cater to Mumbai’s growing needs. The panel, taking all this into account and feeling that the BMC alone may not have the necessary manpower, has recommended that private firms be roped in to carry out studies on the pattern of population growth and the use of land in different zones.
Private help will also be enlisted to identify the open space required for the city’s infrastructure needs. All these inputs will then become the
basis of the blue-print of the city’s development over the next 20 years. The BMC has also asked the state government to appoint a town-planning officer who will help to formulate and implement the revised development plan. The BMC panel, at a recent meeting, conceded that the current development plan was prepared with the “sole’’ objective of re d u c i n g congestion in Mumbai and was not based on specialised studies on e c o n o m i c and infrastructure development. “The revised plan should identify critical areas like transportation and employment-generation. And the vision document for it should be prepared by private experts,’’ panel member and former bureaucrat D T Joseph said. The plan will earmark hawking zones, identify new dumping grounds, estimate the need for more water and chalk out slum-rehabilitation projects. “The previous plan did not provide land for dumping grounds and did not identify hawking zones,’’ additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev said. The revised plan will also take into account new townships coming up on the outskirts of the city. “The plan should consider key growth-drivers like business districts and township projects, additional municipal commissioner (projects) Manu Kumar Srivastava said.
But planners and urban development experts are taking the proposals with a pinch of salt. “Even the previous plan did not have too many flaws; the problem was that it was never implemented by officials. The plan to cross-link the city by public transport, vital because of Mumbai’s shape, was one of the plans that was never implemented,’’ World Bank urban development consultant Prakash Apte said.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DP What is the development plan? The development plan, called DP in short, is a blue-print for developing the city for the next 20 years. When does the next DP come into effect? The city should have its next DP in place by 2013. What is the status of the next DP right now? The BMC has formed a panel comprising senior BMC officials, former bureaucrats and corporators to suggest important proposals for the DP. Experts are going to be invited for their suggestions in every area (like, for instance, road development or water supply or rehabilitation of slumdwellers). The BMC will approve of or reject these proposals and then pass the approved proposals on to the state government, which will enact rules to formalise these proposals and give them legal sanction. In between, however, the BMC will also invite suggestions from the public on its proposals. The BMC has already asked the state government to appoint a town-planning official who will be in charge of formulating and then implementing the new DP. THE LAST DP Mumbai’s last DP suggested several important policy ideas NOT DONE But there were a couple of pathbreaking suggestions in the previous DP that were never implemented CROSS-LINK CITY The government should develop road, railway and other forms of transport in such a way that would link more city areas east-to-west in addition to the conventional north-south connectivity; this idea, unfortunately, was not given its due importance. MAKE SPACE FOR IT, ITeS The suggestions included making space for the sunrise sector, information technology and information technology-enabled services, on land occupied by old industry. DEVELOP MILL LAND Development of the plots, on which Mumbai’s big textile mills once stood, was one of the recommendations of the last DP. MORE SPACE PLEASE The previous DP also stressed on the necessity of providing more open space to residents; this idea, too, was never implemented. |
| Also see : Administrative Wards of Mumbai, Government Acts(By Topic), Government Schemes |
