buildings as ideas, nariman point 1974

One of the biggest scams in the early 1970’s in Bombay was the sale of land at Nariman Point, at the southern end of the city by the Government of Maharastra. Though most of the plots were not on land at all but still underwater, yet sales were brisk and triggered off a great deal of bribery and courruption.

To fight this, a group of citizens came together and formed one of the first NGO’s in the city, called the Bombay Bachao (Save Bombay), and asked Charles Correa to prepare a plan that would bring a halt to further reclamation.

Accordingly a new plan that attempted to rationalise and make sence of the messy and incomplete earthwork by creating a shallow water body for recreation, promenades, restaurants, etc., with the actual sea wall clearly delineated so that the waterfront would be constant, and any further reclamation would be easy to identify - and stop. The resulting plan was presented to the Chief Minister.

Surprisingly enough, it was accepted right away. Of course what transpired was not quite so simple. Although reclamation at Nariman point was officially discontinued, a considerable amount of earth was dumped, often quite surreptitiously, so as to create building sites for various Government Departments over the next several years.

SOURCE #

Buildings as ideas, The un-built work of Charles Correa - 15 March to 14 May 2016, Gallery MMB, Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai