With over 13 million residents, Mumbai has earned its reputation for being a congested city, one where being jostled in crowded spaces is part of daily life.
Other densely populated cities like Hong Kong or New York have large public spaces to compensate for the lack of personal space, but in Mumbai open space is rare. A new study shows exactly how rare: only six per cent of the city is reserved for open spaces, and of that area, some 60 per cent is neither developed nor accessible, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Environment Improvement Society found.
Of Mumbai's 30 square kilometers, or 11.6 square miles, of open space, only 10 square kilometers is actually available and being used â€" a miniscule 0.88 square meters, or approximately just 9 square feet, per person.
That puts Mumbai far behind other cities in India, and around the world. Delhi and Bangalore offer 15 and 6.4 square meters of open space per person, while Tokyo and New York have 6 and 2.5 square meters, according to research carried out by the real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle.
“Open spaces in Mumbai are often either inaccessible, offer only partial access or have been encroached upon,†said Ashutosh Limaye, head of research and real estate intelligence service at Jones Lang LaSalle. Mumbai is underutilizing natural assets, including its 35-kilometer western coastline, a 50-square-kilometer national park, and a natural harbor on its eastern coast, he said.
The study, prepared over three years by the city's improvement society, with the architecture firm Adarkar Associates and HCP Design Project Management, an urban planning firm, also includes a n inventory of open spaces, bodies of water, coastline features and large urban green areas in greater Mumbai.
“The study is useful for all the stakeholders in the development of Mumbai, especially the municipal corporation to alert them where urgent attention is required,†said Rahul Asthana, president of the improvement society and metropolitan commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. “It articulates a new methodology which includes environmental features in planning.â€
As the city government revises Mumbai's Development Plan, looking forward to the next twenty years, officials hope this study will contribute to the planning process. “Hopefully this study will attract the attention of civilians and authorities and form the basis of the new development plan,†said D.M. Sukthankar, former chief secretary for the government of the state of Maharashtra.
Although Mumbai's total open space is tiny, the study shows that most Mumbai residents are within a five-minute walk of some open space. However, factors like insufficient visibility, poor signage and lack of access from roads restrict the use of some of these spaces.
“The aim is to utilize the full potential of the open spaces available at present to benefit all sections of the society,†said Neera Adarkar of Adarkar Associates. Ms. Adarkar said that it is unrealistic to compare the per-capita open space of Mumbai to other cities with much lower populations. Still, she said, it is imperative that open spaces to be kept open to public throughout the day to benefit students, senior citizens, children and women.
Recommendations from the study include development of abandoned mill sites in central Mumbai.
Bodies of water are even more endangered in Mumbai than open spaces, the study found. Of the 143 identified, only 107 have not been encroached upon. Water bodies are not reserved features demarcated on the development plan, Ms. Adarkar explained, so they have no legal status and are vulnerable. “With a little effort and the correct planning, a water body can create a calming and soothing effect which all of us Mumbaikars crave,†she said.
The study also details threats to the watercourses and coastlines of the city, including disposal of industrial waste and fishing equipment, plastic littering, oil spills and open defecation. “One of the reasons that these unique environmental features are under threat is that they are not even marked in the development plan of Mumbai,†said Shirley Ballaney, an urban planner with HCP Design, Planning & Management. “These features also fall under the jurisdiction of various different agencies, and lack of coordination between the agencies is a big challenge.â€
Earlier this year, P.K. Das and Associates, a Mumbai architecture firm, drew up an ambitious plan to revamp the open spaces in the city called “Open Mumbai.†The firm pr oposed numerous sites for city development and the expansion of public spaces. “We all know that Mumbai's open spaces are terribly short,†Mr. Das said, and that large portions of the city's open spaces remain in private hands.
The “Open Mumbai†project culminated in an exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art that attracted the attention of heads of state and city governments. Earlier this month, the municipal corporation approved the ‘Juhu Vision Plan', which was conceived as part of Open Mumbai. The plan, which includes development of public space in the Juhu locality, conservation of Juhu beach and improved connectivity and social amenities, is expected to be under way within a month.
Meanwhile, several citizens' groups have taken up the cause, including Save Open Spaces and CitiSpace.
CitiSpace surveyed the condition of 800 open spaces in the city and created a database that is available for purchase. “The biggest challenges to o pen spaces in the city are misuse, abuse and neglect,†said Nira Punj, convenor of CitiSpace. Ms Punj believes that the regeneration of the city's few remaining spaces can be done, by pressuring the implementing authorities, knocking on the doors of the judiciary and coordinating the myriad civic departments.
But it will be difficult, she said. “Convincing the implementing authorities to take the straight and narrow path is not easy, because there is not much money to be made on the straight and narrow path.â€
