Planning in Bombay

The Sir J. J. College of Architecture in Bombay is the oldest Architecture school in Asia, and they treated us to a three hour seminar on Planning in Bombay. We heard five speakers in the three hours, chosen to give us a good cross section of disciplines and perspectives. We heard from the head of the College, an urban designer, an activist, an architect, and a developer. Together, the speakers gave us an outline of the city history, its architecture, urban challenges, and the policies planned to address them.

Bombay used to be seven islands, and landfill has brought the town's landscape to its present form. Many of the town's grandest buildings were built in the 1800's by the Royal Engineers, so the architects are unknown (or uncredited: This was the second time a host noted the anonymity of the architects of some of India's historic buildings). There are also plenty of Miami-style Art Deco buildings from the 1930s. The 1970s saw Bombay's first regional plan, the airport, and a bridge between Bombay and New Bombay (a new district across the bay from the old Bombay). In 1997 the city changed it's name to Mumbai (though many still refer to it as Bombay). Historically the city's economy has been based on trade and textiles, and more recently film, finance, and some information technology are included in the mix. The city's growth may require the development of a New New Bombay, south of the original Bombay and the existing New Bombay on the east side of the bay.

One policy consideration has been whether or not to break the Mumbai Metropolitan Region into subregions, but so far planners think that the region's problems need more interregional cooperation than they do more local control (though in 2005 they have introduced the idea of Township Zones as an additional planning tool). Plus, there are not enough town planners for every district to have their own planning department. They are also including globalization as a force shaping the city and the needs of districts within the city, identifying different parts of the city as globalized, urban turning global, declining urban re-emerging as global, and unaffected by globalization.

They spoke like so many others on in-migration, noting that in-migration is caused not just by the pull of the city, but also by the push of bad prospects in the villages. In the city, at least there is food, and food is more important than shelter. In the squatter settlements there are more jobs than people, and 68% of employment is in the informal sector.

Another policy consideration is the reduced reliance on bulk land acquisition to manage development. Just as in many other cities we visited, their post-1990 master plan relies less on bulk land acquisition as a planning tool than pre-1990 plans. A contemporary shift to emphasis on creating ownership housing led to a lack of new rental housing, which combined with rent control laws that destroyed the ability of landlords to make a profit from their property, let to a lack of new rental housing being created. This is now changing again, Bombay has purposefully created renter housing, and they intend to change the settlements from horizontal development to vertical development.

There are many projects to redevelop squatter settlements and other housing. 55% of the Bombay population lives in squatter settlements. We heard some fantastic stories of existing conditions of housing, including one building with a tree growing on the 5th floor that cannot be removed because its roots are the only thing holding the building together. One redevelopment project we were told of will convert 70 acres of settlements into several seven-story buildings, with units as small as 225 sf. There are scores of other similar projects, including a pilot project which would provide 150 sf units for a family of 5. They have identified dozens of 40 acre clusters of unsafe buildings which could and should be redeveloped as a cluster (not on a building by building basis). Their goal is to be able to develop 300 sf units.

For the largest squatter settlement, Dharavi, there is an incremental development scheme in place. It involves addressing the settlement piece by piece in townships of 15-20 thousand residents. The developer of the plan took the trouble (inspired by Howard Hughes' tendency to immerse himself in projects) to locate his office in the settlement for several months while developing the plan. He found a bustling economy of diverse industries, and designed his redevelopment plans to preserve the mix of residential, commercial, and light industrial by having the new structures have the first few floors accomodate retail and light industry. He felt he would need 12-14 story towers to accomodate needs for light, air, foot traffic, retail activity, schools, and the desired multifunctionality of his redevelopment areas (though he purposely does not try to mix the rental housing portions of the redevelopment with wealthier ownership housing district. Part of the basis for his confidence in the redevelopment plan is his confidence in the aspirations and work ethic of the squatter settlement residents.