Plan to convert western seafronts into entertainment hubs hit a roadblock
Mumbai's plan to transform coastal areas into an entertainment district faces opposition over land use, environmental concerns, and slum rehabilitation.
Mumbai: Despite getting a go-ahead from chief minister Eknath Shinde, the ambitious plan to convert the western seafronts at Aksa, Madh and surrounding beaches into an entertainment district has hit choppy waters.
The proposal is facing four challenges, the recent being reserving land in Madh for the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) had proposed the plan as part of developing six areas along the western coast of Mumbai ie. Aksa, Erangal, Madh, Marve, Daravli and Malvani cover an area of 1,387 hectares. The proposed project is facing opposition from not only local real estate developers but issues are being raised over rehabilitating slum dwellers and there are also objections raised by environmentalists as these stretches are covered with mangroves. With the assembly elections just a month away, the state cabinet has earmarked 140-acre land in Madh for rehabilitating Dharavi residents and providing rental housing to them as part of the Dharavi project, which has further curtailed land space.
“The idea was to increase the current Floor Space Index (FSI) from 0.2 to 0.5 or 1 FSI. If there is a special purpose vehicle formed, then the revenue from real estate can come into government coffers. Presently, there are several real estate developers who are exploiting the plots there and are objecting to this plan,” said a senior government official.
As per an internal study done, this step could cough up revenue potential of ₹90,000 crore in the next 45-50 years by controlled sale of FSI. Sources said that CM Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis had liked this idea and have given an in-principle approval in MMRDA’s authority meeting. The file is with the Urban Development Department which needs their clearance too, and bureaucrats have confirmed that this permission is yet to come.
The plan consists of converting the entire coastal region into an entertainment hub, something similar to Genting Highlands in Malaysia. There would be an amusement park, a commercial business district on 168 hectares of land having IT Park, MNCs and studios, well-planned open spaces and affordable housing. It has been proposed with ropeway connectivity with Metro line 2A (D N Nagar-Dahisar) corridor.
Another proposal is to rehabilitate the encroachers and redevelop it into a mini residential cum commercial centre; on the lines of the new town development proposed close to Navi Mumbai airport. However, sources said that the developer lobby there is allegedly objecting to it as it would hurt their pockets.
“Since developers have exhausted land mass in Mumbai, they are now eyeing these locations of Madh, Marve, Aksa etc that offer sea-view for buyers and can be sold for a premium. We are vehemently objecting to it as there is a ploy to exploit it. Moreover, developing them will mean 15-20 lakh more people settling here but there is no civic infrastructure available,” said Advocate Godfrey Pimenta who has been opposing this plan since 2015. It was back then when apparently the Development Plan was first made public for this region.
At least 30% of the coastal areas on this belt are encroached upon and hutments, according to environmentalists, are slowly inching towards the mangroves there. The environmentalists also fear that if these mangroves and mudflats disappear then the chances of flooding will go up further. The Development Plan 2034 had envisaged the development of this portion of the Malad-Borivali coastal belt.
The land will be used to build affordable, rental housing for Dharavi residents ineligible for free housing under the redevelopment scheme. The rental housing scheme for Dharavi residents has already been allotted 255 acres of salt pan land at Kanjurmarg and Mulund, and 21.25 acres in the Kurla dairy.
Back in 1986, one of the first amusement parks of Essel World was set up in Gorai. In 1998, Water Kingdom was added to it on 22-acres of land. In May 2023, they announced a ‘temporary shutdown’ of this amusement park that was a hit in the 1990s.