The revision in the Development Plan (DP) 2014-34 for the City has been underway for the last 3 years. The Mumbai Development Plan 2034 came into force from the 25th of February 2015 as per Section 26 of the MR&TP Act 1966. Suggestions and objections had been called on the same till the 24th of April 2015. Owing to the bulk of objections raised, the faulty Plan was scrapped by the State Government and asked to be reworked by the Municipality. Till such time as this DP is finally approved the stricter of the two provisions will be applicable (Section 46 of the MR&TP Act 1966).
A Development Plan is a plan for the development or redevelopment of an area within the jurisdiction of a planning authority. The DP is the most important document affecting the provision of basic services in the region under consideration. It is a map that defines which land parcels in the city would be reserved for public use. It is a document that sets the path for making Mumbai a livable city.
The Maharashtra Region and Town Planning Act specifies that every municipal corporation must prepare a development plan to be implemented over 20 years. The last development plan for Mumbai was prepared in 1981 and was adopted only thirteen years later, in 1994. Thus a new plan, which is valid for 20 years has been prepared since 2014 and will be in force till 2034.
he public authority responsible for the DP is the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). For the revision of the DP, the MCGM had selected an external consultant through a tendering process, who developed the current draft plan. The people of Mumbai have a say in the process of preparation of the DP as it is going to affect them for a period of 20 years or more which is the equivalent of an entire generation. Thus, making citizen’s response to this document even more important than voting.
The Draft Development Plan for Mumbai 2014-2034, along with Draft Development Control Regulations, has been published in the Gazette and the News Papers. Suggestions/Objections/Comments were requested within 60 days of its release. As a result of UDRI’s concerted and unrelenting campaign of disseminating the knowledge and understanding of the complicated details of the DP documents to stake holders in the city and of the many errors both obvious and fundamental, the faulty Plan was put on hold by the State Government and asked to be reworked by the Municipality. A disaster was thus averted and now UDRI is working closely with the authorities and the stake holders to rectify both the obvious errors and the fundamental flaws of the Plan.
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Errors in Existing Land Use Mapping
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Civic Themes As Focus Area For The DP

The UDRI has built a stakeholder network of 250 NGOs and citizens consisting of approximately 2500 persons who became actively involved in this review process. The UDRI, through numerous meetings and letters, forced the MCGM to disclose and share with the public the Existing Land Use (ELU), on which the new DP was based.

The UDRI scrutiny of the ELU along with inputs from participating citizens and NGOs revealed no less than 3000 errors across various issues which the DP should address. Such inspection of the proposed DP has never been permitted to be raised in the past, making for an inadequate and skewed plan. Also during this scrutiny it was observed that areas under slum clusters (SC) and Special Planning Authorities (SPA), namely areas such as Cuffe Parade and Nariman Point were not part of the ELU. The MCGM said that this was because the planning authority was different. The UDRI has opposed this strongly with letters and meetings with bureaucrats and politicians as it further distorts the DP. To prove the UDRI’s point, if the ELU was overlaid on the current DP, it shows that all public amenity plots (open spaces, public dispensaries, municipal schools, Baal Wadis) have disappeared without a trace!

The Citizen NGO network that participated in this exercise consists of resident associations, individuals, and organizations such as Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), CitiSpace, O.V.A.L. Trust, Horniman Circle Garden Trust, Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), SAVE Forum, IIT Mumbai, Youth United for Voluntary Action (YUVA), PRAJA Foundation, Salaam Bombay Foundation, SNEHA Foundation, Pratham, CEHAT, and Girni Kamgaar Sangathna.

To empower the citizens to give an informed response to the ELU scrutiny and the DP in general, the UDRI successfully undertook the following steps :–

  • Developed training manuals in English and Hindi.
  • Trained over 500 citizens, 24 resident associations and 250 other NGOs.

The UDRI has built a stakeholder network of NGOs and citizens consisting of approximately 2500 persons who became actively involved in this review process. The UDRI, through numerous meetings and letters, forced the MCGM to disclose and share with the public the Existing Land Use (ELU), on which the new DP was based. The UDRI scrutiny of the ELU along with inputs from participating citizens and NGOs revealed no less than 3000 errors across various issues which the DP should address. Such inspection of the proposed DP has never been permitted to be raised in the past, making for an inadequate and skewed plan. Also during this scrutiny it was observed that areas under slum clusters (SC) and Special Planning Authorities (SPA), namely areas such as Cuffe Parade and Nariman Point were not part of the ELU. To prove the UDRI’s point, if the ELU was overlaid on the current DP, it shows that all public amenity plots (open spaces, public dispensaries, municipal schools, Baal Wadis) have disappeared without a trace! The MCGM said that this was because they selected an international consultant to prepare it. The UDRI has opposed this strongly with letters and meetings with bureaucrats and politicians as it further distorts the DP.

The Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) initiated a public participatory process to support the MCGM in its preparation of the new DP. This is a first as the DP has never been opened up to public scrutiny before. The Citizen NGO network that participated in this exercise consists of resident associations, individuals, and organizations such as Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), CitiSpace, O.V.A.L. Trust, Horniman Circle Garden Trust, Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), SAVE Forum, IIT Mumbai, Youth United for Voluntary Action (YUVA), PRAJA Foundation, Salaam Bombay Foundation, SNEHA Foundation, Pratham, CEHAT, and Girni Kamgaar Sangathna.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) published the Draft DP on February 25, 2015. Suggestions /objections had been invited from the public within 60 days of that date. The Mumbai Development plan 2014-34 had to be an all-encompassing document that protects the interest of the disenfranchised. However, the proposed draft excluded nearly three fourths of the city’s population and failed to respond to the pressing challenges of urban poverty, climate change, heritage conservation etc. The plan raging with obvious and fundamental error was unanimously criticized by all. The resultant pressure forced the State Government to scrap it. They have currently asked the Municipality to rework it.

MCGM WORKSHOP WITH STAKEHOLDERS FOR REVISION OF DRAFT DEVELOPMENT PLAN:

  • Education (Meeting dated: 8th January 2014)
    Cover letter | Minutes of the Meeting | Key Recommendations
  • Urban Form (Meeting dated: 15th January 2014)
    Cover letter | Minutes of the Meeting | Key Recommendations
  • Health (Meeting dated: 29th January 2014)
    Cover letter | Minutes of the Meeting | Key Recommendations
  • Digital Inclusion (Meeting dated: 5th February 2014)
    (Updating Soon)Cover letter | Minutes of the Meeting | Key Recommendations
  • MCGM ELU Survey Comments
  • Stakeholder Planning Principles
  • Existing Land Use Verification Guide

At the Urban Design Research Institute we feel it is necessary to reach out to the entire cross section of the city and build stronger networks that can be part of a public participation process for informing the Development Plan of the MCGM. We believe that providing adequate data to the general public will bring about effective participation and make the plan truly democratic.

Below are the links to the Documents obtained under the Right To information Act from the MCGM. These were the Documents submitted by the Consortium of Consultants appointed by the MCGM to do the Revision of Development Plan 2014-34.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Through numerous meetings and letters, UDRI compelled the MCGM to disclose and share with the public the Existing Land Use (ELU) which is the basis on which any DP is created.
  • Provided a platform and built stakeholder network of NGOs, citizens and resident associations to review the ELU and facilitate consensus building for the DP.
  • Developed training manuals in English and Hindi for land-use verification and imparted training to stakeholders to enable participation in the DP process
  • Formulated planning principles and targeted 12 civic themes, namely, Education, Health, Housing, Water and Sanitation, Transportation, Energy, Open Spaces, Environment, Urban Form, Livelihoods, Governance and Digital Inclusion which indicated the needs in these areas for the next 20 years. Workshops were organized by UDRI and the findings communicated to the DP department to be used as the base for the plan.
  • The scrutiny showed that significant areas covered by slum clusters and land under Special Planning Authorities (SPA) were not part of the ELU. The MCGM’s explanation was that this was because such areas were planned for by different authorities. UDRI has opposed this view strongly as it distorts the DP. The proof of this was shown when UDRI overlaid the ELU on the current DP and found that all public amenity plots (open spaces, public dispensaries, municipal schools, balwadis) had disappeared without a trace!

PROJECT EXPANSION

UDRI will continue working on the MumbaiDP24seven project to ensure the inclusion of citizens’ articulated needs for amenities in the DP and develop effective strategies for implementation. This will be done through:

  • Widening stakeholder networks across the city.
  • Building capacities in civil society for urban planning.
  • Creating channels of communication between civil society and the planning authorities.
  • Building consensus among stakeholders for Proposed Land Use (PLU) Plans at the local, Municipal Ward and City levels.