This kind of increase in floor space index will not address Mumbai’s core problems.
No other city in the whole world has such uniform floor space index. In an ideal situation, areas that offer high accessibility should have more FSI while those that have low accessibility should have
lower FSI.
Generally, you will find that in better-planned cities the highest FSI is in the central business districts and it tapers off as you move to the suburbs.
Had the government allotted higher FSI of six or seven to the stretch between Bandra-Kurla Complex, Sion and Mahim in the 1970s you would not have had such high land prices in areas such as Borivli and houses here would have been affordable. High FSI in these areas would have helped absorb most of the demand leaving prices in distant suburbs affordable.
The FSI pattern in the city is critical for its planning. However, what the government is doing right now is taking a piecemeal approach of using FSI to dole out benefits and raise money.
(As told to Zeeshan Shaikh)