Chief Minister Eknath Shinde Opposing the re-development of the Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls at Worli, Naigaon and NM Joshi Road in South Mumbai as planned by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), a group of architects, civil engineers and urban planners wrote to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday proposing an alternative to the MHADA’s plan. The group, identifying itself as Consensus of Concerned Professionals, gathered 120 signatures from experts across disciplines for the letter.
The letter, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, reads, “There is no doubt that reconstruction is called for, to accommodate the same families in larger dwellings of not less than 28 sqm (300 sq ft), including a private toilet in each such dwelling. In the BDD chawls’ redevelopment, the MHADA has agreed to provide 45 sqm (500 sq ft).”
Citing six recommendations termed as ‘One Possible Alternative’ (OPA), the letter proposed that no additional residential apartments should be added to the existing rehab units to limit densities and control the demand of physical and social infrastructure; construction of 22-storey buildings for rehabilitation instead of proposed 40-storey buildings; inclusion of a full-sized cricket-cum-athletics ground and a full-sized football ground according to the plan, minimal roads and development between the rehabilitation buildings leaving scope for maximum open space; good daylight and cross ventilation for each apartment and no private parking.
Shirish Patel, civil engineer and an architect who is one of the authors of the letter, said in a statement on Thursday, “Redevelopment as planned by the MHADA will gravely damage the health and the healthy growth of families rehabilitated from the existing BDD Chawls, due to the high density. These buildings will stand for 100 years and the impact on health and healthy living will be felt by the children from these families, and the children of their children. For this, we have come up with ‘One Possible Alternative’.”
Subscriber Only Stories
Sulakshana Mahajan, urban planner and another author of the letter said in a presentation to the media on Thursday, “While the MHADA’s scheme extracts profit and neglects health of residents and the environment, the OPA scheme provides major athletics facilities, focuses on the wellbeing of residents and improves the environment.” Mahajan added, “We ran simulations of what the project will look like, and going by the MHADA’s scheme, natural light and ventilation will be affected for residents of the lower floors for the rehabilitated buildings.”
According to MHADA’s scheme, the built-up area (BUA) of the proposed redevelopment project is 2,367,000 sqm, whereas the Organisation Process Asset (OPA) proposes a BUA of 1,022,000 sqm.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
