Mumbai Development Plan-2034: ‘Prepared without understanding of city’

Explained: Mumbai growth plan: a few firsts, yet limited by what

Mahajan also pointed out that the DP has failed to offer solutions to the major problems that Mumbai faces. “This was prepared by planners without any understanding of the city. There is nothing about public transport, pollution levels etc,” she said. Mahajan said she was not against opening up No Development Zone (NDZ) lands for affordable housing, this should be the last option.

Former municipal commissioner D M Sukthankar said what matters more would be implementation of the new DP. He said: “Implementation of the DP is a matter of administrative and financial resources. Earlier, after the DP was approved, there was no monitoring done on the ground. A full-fledged monitoring body should be in place to ensure effective implementation.”

Read | Mumbai Development Plan-2034: More construction space, but woes remain

Sukthankar said he recently wrote to the chief minister about the relaxed Development Control Regulations (DCR) for slum rehabilitation rules. Also Read | Mumbai Development Plan-2034: Govt makes 2,300 changes in draft

“Under the slum rehabilitation rules, concession was given and the eight-metre distance between two buildings was reduced to three metres. That DCR was relaxed under pressure from builders. For example, during 1995, 2001 and 2012 seven to 20-storey buildings came up within just three metres of one another. This led to TB spreading rapidly in the locality. This was seen in M (East) ward. We have demanded that the old rule be implemented again,” he said.