Maharashtra's govt's plan for a diplomatic enclave near BKC only reflects misplaced priorities

While several government employees live in rented premises they can ill afford, and petty officials live in slums like Dharavi, it is preposterous for the Housing Policy being shaped by Maharashtra government to say an entire colony in the heart of Greater Mumbai  “has outlived its utility”. Is the government saying it has no responsibility towards its employees? This, apparently, is the excuse to build a diplomatic enclave adjoining the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), within hailing distance of the domestic airport and not too far from the international one. The report in The Times of India significantly points to how the “proposal was made by the developer introduced by a bureaucrat as a representative of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing and Industry (MCHI)”. [caption id=“attachment_2275340” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP image[/caption] However, one saving grace, could be the fact that the enclave would be developed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) using “world-class architects and take up the project on its own without private participation.” Also, the best contractors will be engaged for the project, which “will be a showcase project for Mumbai”. But why does the MCHI even have an interest in the project? For one, to seek and secure contracts, which will come with overwhelming rates. For example, Lincoln House, the new US mission in BKC, reportedly cost $1 billion to build. Much earlier, the British mission had shifted to the same area. There is no other reason why a local builder-developer should lobby for the idea of an enclave since they can collaborate with “world-class” architects and contractors anywhere. Two, the location of the enclave can push up the cost of land and apartments in the area. When the BKC plan was mooted, prices of existing real estate in suburbs like Bandra went skywards. This is perhaps a long- term ploy because while plots were auctioned in BKC, they also pushed up the prices, and not just because a new Nariman Point was emerging. Auctioning piecemeal plots raises prices and the entire Mumbai will face its impact. Much the same has happened across entire Navi Mumbai – the project area equivalent to Mumbai’s geography – when plots were sold by auction to builders in bits, while mass housing of various categories could have eased prices there and in Mumbai.  MMRDA is a planner not an executor of any projects involving real estate. It has in the past handed the building of Navi Mumbai to CIDCO and a shoddy satellite city was built. But keeping prices moving up is the mantra of the real estate business.There is this distinct favouring of the builder-developer class where profits – or more precisely, profiteering – is the norm. Recently, because the builders asked, the government exempted them from paying premium for the FSI they got in areas which already had very a high price in Mumbai like Worli, Lower Parel, and Napean Sea Road. Flats are in the market for  prices between Rs 40 to 100 crore. This despite fact that the city’s civic body stood to lose an unspecified, but substantial sum of money.  Never mind the fact that the government employees colony loses out to the proposed diplomatic enclave because the revenue generated by redeveloping the project is to be used across the state by 2022. We have not been given an idea as to what happens to those dishoused from the 100 acres eyed for this showpiece. The scattered diplomatic missions across island Mumbai, mostly in and to the south of tony Malabar Hill has not been a problem to anyone, except perhaps the landlords. The diplomatic missions there are on leases, and their eviction is not possible without the consent of the Ministry of External  Affairs.  The diplomats also live close by, again in rented premises. The proposed enclave cannot possibly accommodate all diplomats and their offices. Also given it may be in the flightpath of the an airport that is getting busier by the day, there can’t be huge towers in the proposed diplomatic enclave, which is also the case with BKC. Even Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ dream project of an “iconic tower” has not gone anywhere due to the strict rules on the heights of buildings near the airport. The alacrity with which building codes are frequently altered it is hard to keep track of the changes for various purposes it is used, but never has it been done with the 20-year-old promise of slum rehabilitation. Slums occupy about 13 per cent of the land to which the development plan (DP) applies. Only now is the government even proposing changes. One is to ensure timely completion of slum redevelopment projects – of the 1,200 approved, only 300 have been completed; on the others, the builder-developers are squatting. It is proposing only now that at least 50 per cent of slum dwellers have to be resettled before the free-sale component can be taken up.  To builders, the slums were not people but real estate, and the builders were the clients.