Event Date: 1st December 2012
Speakers: Pankaj Joshi, Shirish Patel
Venue: Coomaraswamy Hall, Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai
The Urban Design Research Institute organised a panel discussion on the topic of FSI and its implications on the city fabric. The Government of Maharashtra has long had a policy of uniform FSI across large tracts of the city—1.0 in the Suburbs and 1.33 in the Island City (despite the fact that much of the older city already has FSI in excess of 2 and 3). Higher values are permitted in some areas with the use of TDR. It is now suggested that the FSI be raised to as much as 4 in selected locations, and to even higher levels for educational institutions and hotels. For redevelopment there is effectively no upper limit for FSI. The rationale for raising FSI is that Mumbai is desperately short of land, and we have no option but to go vertical. Efforts to improve transport connections to allow the city’s expansion onto the eastern mainland have been sporadic and listless. The FSI increase seems to be much the more preferred and easy solution. The panel discussion was organised to improve our understanding of the impact of FSI increase on the city.