The Hindu Business Line : Votebank politics hits Mumbai realty issues

THE Mumbai Metropolitan Region extends over an area of 4,355 sq. km. Much of this region, excluding a part of Thane and Raigad districts, comprises the six Lok Sabha constituencies of Mumbai South, South Central, North East, North West, North Central and North, which will be going to the polls on Monday.

The economic importance of this region justifies the label of `prestigious' that is frequently appended to the Mumbai constituencies.

Healthy growth in the economy of the region is seen by a rising Regional Domestic Product, which has grown from an estimated total Rs 7,967 crore in1989-90 to around Rs 8,500 crore in 1995.

Add to this the fact that Mumbai city alone contributes 27 per cent of the total income-tax returns to the Centre and the tag of `prestigious' becomes clear.

However, while there has been a significant growth in the economy of the region in terms of income and employment, there has also been a shift in the nature of activities, from traditional manufacturing to trading and services.

The emerging change in the nature of the economy is indicated by a higher rate of growth in the tertiary sector over the secondary sector.

The share of the manufacturing sector employment is expected to decline from 35 per cent to 27 per cent and the share of the tertiary sector is slated to rise from 64 per cent to 72 per cent during the 1990-2011 period.

This change of dominance from manufacturing to services activities in the region calls for significant modification in the land use patterns of urban land.

Real estate is at the core of Mumbai's commercial future and thus, at the core of poll issues. Despite this no political party has comprehensively tackled it as an issue. A relook at land use and land reclamation are the two issues that affect every Mumbai constituency. Both call for change of policy and of law.

However, any land-related issue in Mumbai is handled with kid gloves. All the political parties realise that the necessary changes would mean an alienation of significant votebanks.

For example, if the mill lands were redesignated as commercial or residential land in an effort to please developers and mill owners, the local MP would feel an immediate backlash from the large working class population of Mumbai South Central who used to traditionally be employed in the mills.

In a rush to grab profits from the mill lands, the State Government created a lopsided development plan that met with tremendous opposition. The plan essentially involved redesignation of land (especially of the more than 100 acres of mill lands in the city) as well as land reclamation.

Consider the example of the Mumbai South Central constituency. This constituency was once the heart of the mill district but a dead textile industry has resulted in more than 100 acres of land lying unused because of legal wrangles.

There has been a strong move by mill owners to change the land use status from industrial to commercial and residential to enable the land to be put to use.

Aware of the diminishing returns that a saturated city like Mumbai can suffer from, the State Government considers the redevelopment of the mill lands as crucial to the continuing prosperity of Mumbai. A grand plan drawn up a decade ago saw these lands as the link between Mumbai and the mainland.

With industry shifting across the harbour to the district of Raigad, the mill lands were cast in the role of a vast hospitality and shopping complex of international standards.

In a nutshell, the plan was to have a new international airport across the harbour located close to the industrial areas and also near the new Mumbai-Pune expressway.

A bridge was meant to span the harbour linking the mainland to the mill lands where hotels and other conveniences required by business travellers would be constructed.

However, this development - what one bureaucrat referred to as the `Singaporisation of Mumbai' - is based on a lopsided development.

Many aspects of Mumbai - including the social, heritage, environmental ones - are being glossed over in the grand plan.

Opposition to the plan has already prevented the construction of a new international airport at Mandwa on the mainland. The airport plan was an outcome of political cowardice.

The existing international airport in the city has vast acres that have been encroached upon by slums. Votebank politics have prevented airport authorities from clearing these. And yet, more space was required for increased air traffic.

The matter was `resolved' by planning the new airport but this was rightly objected to on grounds that the new airport would cause a host of problems that did not justify the ultimate commercial benefits.

Among these were the destruction of livelihoods of farmers and fishermen who had small but prosperous livelihoods. The reclamation of more than 14 km of land for the new airport would also completely destroy the deep natural draught of Mumbai port.

Reclamation of land, essential from the point of view of commercial developers, is no longer permitted by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) laws. The law also forbids construction 500 m from the high tide line.

The CRZ has only a small fan club comprising Mumbaikars concerned about regulating indiscriminate development. Politicians hungry for votes and developers hungry for land take the CRZ almost as a personal affront.

As expected, every move is being made to dilute the CRZ, which has halted rampant and often illegal construction in all the six Mumbai constituencies.

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