timeout 02, brand new world
Look up your maps and you’ll find that middle-class mumbaikars are moving to Sewri! The landboom in Thane can be heard in Colaba! When did this happen? And where’s it taking us?
When you blinked, Mumbai began to sprout up in areas you didn’t even know existed. Wadala (East), Thakur Village, Ciba Geigy Road. They’re among the new neighbourhoods that have emerged seemingly overnight over the remains of shuttered factories, farms and forest land to radically alter the city’s geographical and social landscape.
The mushrooming of new neighbourhoods is just happenstance, of course. Since the new changes in development regulations have opened new areas of the city to builders. Industrial and green areas were rezoned for commercial and residential use. Alongside, TDR scheme allowed the “transfer of development rights” to the suburbs from plots in congested island city that the government had acquired for public projects, or on FSI builders were re-housing slum-dwellers. This enabled builders to construct higher towers in suburban neighbourhoods than would be usually be permitted. Simultaneously, the easy availability of homes has given middle-class Mumbaikars the opportunity to buy flats in these new compounds, located in the city on some of the most expensive real estate.
Owners of the new apartment complexes have acquired lifestyles that few would have imagined possible. Many have access to lavish clubhouses with swimming pools, gyms and jogging tracks. Their complexes are patrolled by armies of private security guards. If they’ve got any money left over to blow up they don’t have to look far: over-whelming, new neighbourhoods are being built right next to malls and multiplexes.
These new neighbourhoods have changed the way we live. For one, they’re often far from the train lines that have guided the development of the city until now. This means that residents of New Thane and Wadala (East) are most likely to drive to work, adding immeasurably to the crush on the streets. In addition, some of these complexes are environmentally suspect. Their swimming pools – rarely used because many residents are too conservative to strip down to their shorts in public – are a burden to our water-starved city. More alarmingly, many are built over chemical factories or engineering plants that generated hazardous waste, note the participants of a PUKAR study on post-industrial landscapes.
In an attempt to map the physical effects of Mumbai’s metamorphosis from a manufacturing economy into one that is fuelled by so-called New Economy industries such as information technology enterprises and media ventures, architect Pankaj Joshi, photographer Rajesh Vora and social scientist Carol Breckenridge have taken more than 1300 photographs of these new neighbourhoods over the past four years. They believe that the rise of many new neighbourhoods near malls and multiplexes isn’t a coincidence. “The easiest way to erase a location’s industrial past is to give it new imageability,” said Joshi. Building glitzy shopping complexes or cinema theatres makes potential buyers forget that they’ll be living over a toxic-waste dump, he contends.
Others including eminent architect Charles Correa have expressed concern at the physical plans of these class – homogenous neighbourhoods. Often constructed on the edge of slums or derelict settlements, many new neighbourhoods are gated communities that protect their residents from their surroundings – shutting them off from the vibrant, random interactions that are an essential part of Mumbai’s cosmopolitan experience elsewhere. They are built to ensure insularity and isolation, qualities rarely associated with this city.
To be sure, every new phase of the city’s growth has prompted similar apprehensions. Too often, though, they’ve been disregarded in the rush to mine profits from the City of Gold. Mumbai has always been a great social experiment. How do you think this one is going to turn out? Naresh Fernandes
PAGE 15 #
Thakur village | Beauty parlours and TV stars. #
At least 18 beauty and dental clinics line the streets of Thakur Village, the neon-lit neighbourhood that’s bursting up on the edges of the Western Express Highway in Kandivili (East). It is a clue to the fact that many of the area’s residents ned to look their best to make a living. Thakur Village’s proximity to Goregaon’s Film City makes the neighbourhood the natural habitat of television actors like Kiran Karamarkar and Gautum Chaturvedi, and music directors like Nadeem and Anand Milind, in addition to scores of cameramen, sound-engineers and the other Bollywood denizens.
To house the dream merchants and other upper-middle-class Mumbaikars, property agents abound in this neighbourhood. TimeOut counted 27 brokers long a single stretch of road. They’re the most visible indication that a boom is sweeping through the tower dominated neighbourhood.
It is the next Andheri-Lokhandwala, only more organised,” declares real-estate agent Deepika Mota, who moved into her two-bedroom terrace flat in the Evershine Millennium Paradise complex here two years ago.
No one could have imagined the lightning quick speed with which the placid fields that stretched along the Highway would metamorphose into a bustling township. The stretch was originally pastureland that belonged to Nanabhoy Jeejeebhoy, a US-based Parsi. Ramnarayan Singh Thakur, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh who made a living in the 1950s cutting and selling the grass, managed to get himself registered as an agriculturist cultivating the land, acquiring title to it. A long court battle ensued, but the two families reached an out-of-court agreement in the early 1980s. The Thakurs got 40 percent of the land and the Jeejeebhoys 60.
The Thakur family started developing Thakur Village in 1991, drawing upon its experience of developing Thakur Complex, which sits on the other side of the Expressway. But while the development of Thakur Complex was more organic, Thakur Village was more studied. “We elected builders to erect residential buildings while developing the infrastructure ourselves,” explains Virendra Singh Thakur, the former grass cutter’s eldest son.
The prefix “Thakur” is omnipresent. The neighbourhood is home to Thakur Public School, Thakur Management Institute, Thakur College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Thakur Cinema, Thakur Polytechnic, Thakur Cardiac Hospital, all of which they have built. One brother, Ramesh Singh Thakur has been the local municipal corporator for the last three terms.
Their efforts have not been in vain. Flat prices, which stood at Rs 1,800 per sqft in 2000 are Rs 3,500-4,500 per sqft today. Oberoi Towers, a 350-apartment, is the most expensive block, is the most expensive address: flats there cost approximately Rs.60 lakh. But the project generating most interest is Evershine Millennium Paradise, with about 10,000 flats on the block. “We have gardens, a skating ground and an excellent clubhouse all within the same complex,” says resident Anjali Sinha. “The intercom connects us to all the residents, as well as to 70 shops.”
For the most part, it is upwardly mobile young families which are colonising the neighbourhood. While Mota’s husband is head marketing manager at Gujarat and Anjali Sinha’s husband is assiatant vice-president at HDFC Bank. “All white-collared people are moving in,” says Mota. “So we feel our children are growing up in a good environment among educated, high-class people.”
The “good environment” is ensured by guarding the complexes like maximum security zones. Short of being frisked, outside questioned and screened thoroughly, passing through the main gates of the high-walled, camera manned complexes and then below the wing. In case of Evershine, the residences are also provided with video-door facilities to ward off unwanted interlopers. At DMart’s big, colourful, discount-happy department store, even small handbags are sealed at the entrance. The seal is only opened at the cash counter.
“Happening” is the adjective residents of Thakur Village seem to use most to describe their neighbourhood. They’re proud of the DMart, their Pizza Hut and Casa multi-cuisine restaurant. No one seems to miss the absence of bookshops, art galleries or theatre venues. For now, they are too busy shopping. Chetna Mahadik
WHERE: Along Western Express Highway, Kandivali (East)
PROS: Within 30 minutes within international and domestic airports, lots of open spaces, housing complexes with all kinds of facilities including, cinema, schools and colleges, shopping complexes
CONS: Very far from South Mumbai. if you’re work is in Town, getting there each morning is a living nightmare
PAGE 16 #
Powai | crocodiles and go-karting #
It takes less time in Powai to get a broadband connection in Powai than to drive to South Mumbai. Yet travelling to the city isn’t a necessity for most of the residents of this once-open agricultural area. With sprawling luxury townships that are wired to the global workplace, Powai is increasingly self-sufficiently developing into a hub for international services and as an entertainment hub that draws residents from neighbourhood suburbs like Andheri, Vikhroli and even Belapur. Las Vegas ran can dancers, eat Vietnamese food, stock back kamikaze cocktails at the Rude Lounge, one of the city’s most throbbing nightclubs. But the fallout of this of all this merriment is that the fabled crocodile-laden lake promise upon which the area was promoted is drying up and the lush hills on its edges are being illegally quarried.
Feel cheated,” says SK Saxena, who moved to Powai with his wife after he retired a while ago. “It looked like a Swiss postcard painting to the towering buildings that sprung up outside his balcony, slashing the view of the lake and hills by half, he says, “It is not what the brochure promised.”
He lives in the older section of Hiranandani Gardens, Powai’s largest township which includes office complexes, shopping centres and over 4,000 apartments. Hafeez Contractor designed the buildings at Hiranandani in a style described as neo-classical but that’s more reminiscent of the Las Vegas Strip or Disneyland. Imposing Roman-inspired columns that run across the main avenues, Parthenon – like facades, some built atop 30-storeyed buildings, cavernous off-white sprouting out apartment blocks and cheap imitations of Hellenistic friezes all contribute to the overstated landscape. “I wish they had constructed the newer buildings with a touch of class,” says Saxena. “Many of them look like forums for Roman orgies.”
Despite the architectural incongruity, there’s a strong demand for apartments in this area, with top-end apartments at Hiranandani being sold for upwards of Rs 3 crores. The residents of Powai tend to be affluent, many of them retirees who have sold their homes in places like Cuffe Parade and Colaba to buy flats at Powai for half the amount; they’ve invested the rest to live comfortably off the returns. Over 100 global companies, including Nestle, Colgate, Bayer and Sony Pictures, have local head offices in the area and rent houses for their employees; about 1,000 expiates live and work in Powai. A sizeable number of minor industrialists and business-people with offices in nearby areas like Saki Naka, Ghatkopar and Mulund have also moved in attracted by the greenery, the ICSE school, the lake, restaurants, multiple supermarkets, go-karting track and the city’s largest gaming centre. “My parents could not have dreamt of living in a posh place like this,” says marble exporter Arun Tiwari, who moved into Hiranandani Gardens 16 months ago. “We have everything here.”
Community spirit is strong in Powai, with residents mixing freely during walks in the area’s parks and forest. A popular weekly newspaper, Planet Powai, champions civic causes and reports local news. What the residents have not been able to prevent is the influx of outsiders who work at Powai’s four major call centres. Older Hiranandani residents say they didn’t have a clue that commercial buildings were part of the township’s plan and that the call centre employee are a nuisance. “We don’t go near those buildings at night,” says one disgruntled resident. “Between the rash Sumo drivers (who transport the call centre employees), the girls smoking on the street and boys revving their bikes when we pass, it’s better to stay away.”
There have been some stray victories over the call centre brigade. The Rodas Ecotel’s erstwhile nightclub, Zwigs was forced to close after residents complained of sleepless nights. Yet the bottom line is that the call centre employees have plenty of loose cash and businesses have moved to soak up that money. Café Mocha is always bustling, the Parabola restaurant offers heavily discounted midnight buffets for post-shift indulgence and the gaming zone, Hakone with its dazzling arcade and bowling alley, is a natural draw for youth. The Velvet Lounge at the Renaissance hotel hosts the pick of city DJs’ and over the weekends, the crowds are packed in so tight that they start spilling out on to the hotel’s lawn.
“We can’t keep up with the demand for entertainment, meals or rooms here,” says Rodas general manager S Sriram. “Most of the outlets here have been created for call centre employees who have cash to spend, abundant energy and no place to go.”
Yet not all Powai’s younger residents are at ease with the area’s brash consumerism and grotesque aesthetics. “I was badly shocked when I came here,” says Alexandru Dragomir, a 26-year-old Romanian programmer who works for TCS. “I thought, “What? This is Bombay?” CJ Kurien
WHERE: Greater Eastern suburbs, near Kanjurmarg Station.
PROS: Cosmopolitan community, a clutch of entertainment options, self-sufficient townships.
CONS: Poor connectivity to the city, widespread construction.
PAGE 17 #
Wadala East | cemeteries and salt-pan views #
Five years ago, Wadala (East) didn’t even exist. There was Wadala of the Five Gardens and the Parsi Colony, and then there was Antop Hill, infamous for its six cemeteries and sprawling slums. Then suddenly, the bit of Wadala around the giant Indian Oil Limited fuel storage tanks began filing with flats that sold for Rs 40 lakhs each.
How did such a vast tract of land in the centre of the city avoid the eagle eye of Mumbai builders until now? It’s because the area was an industrial zone until fairly recently, housing three big factories – Metropolitan Springs Company, Indian Hume Pipes Company and Ice Bar Company. Besides there were many warehouses storing goods waiting to be shipped from a nearby Bombay Port Trust. But with octroy changes escalating, factories began to move out of Mumbai, while the warehouses storing goods waiting to be shipped from the nearby Bombay Port Trust. But with octroy charges escalating, factories began to move out of Mumbai, while warehouses were abandoned with most port activity moving to Nhava Sheva across the harbour. Wadala (East) became possible in 1991, when the Development Control Regulations enacted that year allowed the area to be rezones for residential use. Suddenly 25 acres of land was on the market. Concrete towers started shooting up, some with views of the Antop Hill slums below and the smoke-belching Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers plant not so far away. Most of the development centres around four housing complexes: Bhakti Park, Lloyds, Dosti Estate and Emgee Green Gardens. To create a township in the middle of nowhere was no rash gamble on the part of the builders. Wadala (East) has one big advantage to balance most of its faults: its central location. Ten minutes from Five Gardens, a 20-minute drive from Dadar TT and within half-an-hour of both South Mumbai and the Bandra Kurla Complex, the neighbourhood is a dream come true for Mumbaikars who seem to waste half their lives commuting.
I don’t think even we realised how central Wadala is until we moved here,” said Journalist Sameera Khan, who moved into her own flat in Wadala from a rented one in Bandra (West) two years ago. “My husband works at Nariman Point, so any place beyond Bandra or nearer town.” Besides, she says, her new home is located conveniently enough for her to travel through the city on assignments and still be home in time to see her three-year-old daughter come back from school.
Khan’s sentiments find a ready echo in many young professional families moving into the area. Before purchasing a flat in Lioyds Estate, Shruti Seksaria, a financial consultant, looked at many properties in Dadar and Prabhadevi. “Either they were too small or too expensive,” she said.
In Seksaria’s case, what tipped the balance was the lush green and open surroundings. She can see the verdant Antop Hill rise up at one end and salt-pans on the other. Narrow but mostly empty lanes meander their way around the hill. “It does not feel as if its Bombay,” said Bhakti Park resident Uma Kagal. “Bombay is so crowded.”
But real-estate prices in Wadala (East) is rising. “In March, prices stood at Rs 3,000sqft, and are already approaching Rs 4,000sqft said Mudit Gupta, who has built a flat complex in the area. Considering prices started at Rs 2,550-Rs 2,650 in 2001 it has been a spectacular rise. Costs vary as per the level of infrastructure provided by the housing complexes. For example, in complex Dosti Estate, which comes equipped with garden, jogging track, swimming pool and fancy new clubhouse, prices have touched Rs 4,200.
However, not all is as hunky-dorky as builders would have us believe. Brouchure for Dosti Estate happily declare: “Five minutes from Five Gardens” – but fail to mention the row of decrepit shanties that line the road connecting Wadala (East) to Five Gardens. Said Khan, “it feels odd to wear one’s morning exercise gear and then walk through the shanties. “Many residents are uneasy with the slums around them. “They appear intimidating and secluded, “ said Seksaira, “it isn’t the sort of neighbourhood where you just step outside for a walk.”
This means that most residents just stay in and out of the neighbourhood in the same time. The complexes themselves are various gated communities, with any amenity its resident might require. – grocery store, jogging tracks, swimming pool, club houses, gardens – built within the boundary wall. But though few acknowledge it, the residents of Wadala (East) can’t do without the slums. After all, it’s where most of the domestic help live. Chetna Mahadik
WHERE: Across the overbridge from Five Gardens.
PROS: It is centrally located with both Town and Bandra Kurla Complex within easy distance. The Wadala station is connected both to the Harbour and the Western Line.
CONS: Has a sprawling slum in the neighbourhood, Infrastructure is still coming up
PAGE 18 #
New Thane | panthers and joint families #
We got double the space at half the price. That’s what everyone you speak to on the streets of New Thane says when asked why they left Mumbai. When you consider that Thane is also greener, less crowded and less polluted than most parts of Mumbai, it isn’t surprising that thousands of former Mumbaikars are willing to brave the hour-long commute to Town: they know that they’ll have genuine peace and quiet when they return home in the evening.
New Thane, which has emerged along the Thane-Pokhran Road II and Godbunder Road, is now enjoying what residents called its “second boom”. The first wave of construction started in the mid-1980’s, when builders acquired former factory land and tracts of property on the edges of the panther-filled Sanjay Gandhi National Park to construct townships with 20-storey towers, clubhouses, playgrounds, shops, schools and hospitals.
Jazz singer Joe Alvares, a long-time Thane resident, said that when his industrialist father tried to sell their surplus land in 1980, he found few takers. It was five years before Lalit Gandhi of the Lok Group bought part of the land to build Lok Puram, one of the first housing complexes on Pokhran Road II. Pawar Nagar and the Goenka Group’s Vasant Vihar were built around the same time. By the mid-90s almost every major builder had started a project here – there was Godrej Properties with Eden Woods, R Raheja with Garden Estate, Tata housing with Glendale and Kalpataru with Siddhachal complex.
Then in 1997, municipal commissioner TC Chandrashekar arrived to help transform from a congested labyrinth of dusty lanes into a modern town with wide, well-connected roads. After he cleared illegal encroachments and completed a road widening project, Thane went from being “the back of beyond” to “the cleanest city of India”. It was the impetus for a new influx of builders and the second wave of construction activity. The Hiranandani group, the Neelkanth group and Kanakia Constructions were some of those whose arrival in the early 2000s sowed the seeds for the “second boom”, one that has brought a cosmopolitan flavour to a town once known for its conservative, middle-class Maharashtrian population.
Many of New Thane’s residents are joint families that have moved from Mumbai to give themselves space to expand, says real-estate agent Rakesh Kapoor. “The trend we’re seeing is that when sons get married and plan to start their own families, they realise the need for a larger house,” he said. “As they can’t affort a bigger place in Mumbai itself, they sell their flats, buy a two or three BHK in Thane – and still have money left over.”
But for all its advantages, Thane is still very, very far for someone with a job in Mumbai. Most New Thaneites say they don’t mind the commute, especially since most of them make the trip by car or motorbike. They say their commute takes just as long as someone living in Mumbai’s western suburbs. “It takes me an hour and 15 minutes to drive to and from my office in Worli,” said 42-year-old Siddhanchal resident Murli Sundrani, who works as a marketing manager. “But at least I travel in moving traffic”
Sundrani’s more bothered by the fact he had to pay octroy in Thane after he bought furniture in Mulund. “There’s good news for Godhbunder Road will soon have an RMall by the end of next year, the 5.5 lakh sqft City Mall will open at Kapurbawdi Junction.
Thanks to Big Bazaar (the only functioning part of Lake City Mall) and Cinemax (Thane’s first multiplex), Thaneites must trek down to Mumbai to shop or see a movie. The day Thane gets its first resto-bar does not seem far away.
But not everyone’s happy with the pace of development. Many residents say new buildings will put pressure on public amenities and some are already complaining water and electricity cuts for two hours on mornings for the past three days,” said Dilip Shroff, a 22-year-old Pawar Nagar resident. “With new buildings sprouting up every few month, I’m not sure we’ll be able to cope up.”
It seems only a matter of time for Thane’s USP of being close to nature is more a concrete kind of jungle. The signs are already here. Lok Puram resident and journalist Freny Manecksha says, “When we first moved in, my window had an unobstructed view of the Yeoor Hills. Now we see only buildings.” Amit Gurbaxani
WHERE: An hour from VT
PROS: Cheaper, greener, cleaner
CONS: A long, long drive if you work in town
PAGE 20 #
BRICK-A-BRAC | the money behind the new Mumbai. #
Raheja Corporation: Seen the spacious lobby of the JW Marriott in Juhu? Credit brothers Vijay and Deepak Raheja. Their current projects include premium apartment buildings like Belmont in Mahim.
Jyoti Group: Their new projects run across Sion, Wadala, Thane and Vasai, but we’re most owned by the location of their office (as per their website): New Upper Parel. In case you’re wondering that’s Sewri.
Sunshine Builders: Where there is will there is a way, and if there is no way, make a way” is the motto of the Sunshine Group, who is behind sprawling residential complexes in Vasai, Mulund, Malad and Evershine Millennium Paradise township in Kandivali (East).
Hiranandani Constructions: The city’s western suburbs have been completely transformed by this family-run business group, best known for pioneering ridiculously self-sufficient, modernised bubbles in Powai and Thane.
K Raheja Corporation: The big daddy of Mindspace, this group single-handedly transformed Malad (West) and Goregaon. Several new constructions are in progress, but they’ve got their fingers in loads of other things too, including Crossword, Shoppers Stop, Inorbit Mall, the Renaissance Hotel and Lakeside Chalet Marriot apartments.
Kalpataru: This is one company that has refused (so far) to call its properties anything phoren-inspired. Nope, their residential buildings have good old Hindi names drawing on your own colourful mythology, thank you. Yugdharma, Antariksha, Nakashtra, Tarangan, Kshitij. The Kalpataru Synergy park in Santa Cruz is a massive work in progress.
Neelkanth Group: Back in 1938, the founder of this group worked on projects like the Karachi Airport Runway and the Karachi Club. In more recent times, it’s been responsible for Tardeo AC Market, Tarabai Hall and landmark buildings in Ghatkopar and Chembur. It’s now busy developing large spaces in Thane.
Sheth Group: The Sheth Group is making news with its largest offering, The Beaumont. Three towers of 30-something floors, each housing the latest amenities, offer fabulous sea views (the first residential floor is eight storeys high) and sits in the heart of Prabhadevi. Rumour is it’s commanding true South Mumbai prices. Divia Thani-Daswani
It’s all in the name
How to name a new building?
Look up a Greek dictionary
Read Wordsworth
When in doubt, just point to a map of London and adopt.
If you still can think of a good name, blame it on your Vastu consultant.
Here are some names of new developments, believe it or not, in aamchi Mumbai:
Aspen
Brooke Ville
Caribbean
Carlyle
Daffodil
Divine Path
Enchante
Evalina
Fiona
Florentine
Glen Dale
Golder’s Green
Hercules
Ixora
La Sonrisa
Twinkle Heights
Valencia
Wembley
Winston
PAGE 21 #
CG Road | mooing cows, boho residents #
“The air is fresher,” says Pallavi Sawardekar, a resident of Dheeraj Valley who moved to Ciba-Geigy Road from Four Bungalows in Andheri four years ago. “I’m sure there is a one-degree temperature drop as soon as you enter this road.” It’s industrial-sounding name notwithstanding, CG Road – built on land previously owned by the Swiss chemicals company – is actually a bucolic neighbourhood that looks out on acres of pasture that forms part of the Aarey Milk Colony.
Just off the Western Express Highway and only 20 minutes from Goregaon Station, CG Road is home to a growing community of artists, writers and film-makers. As with Thakur Village, CG Road’s close enough to Film City to make it attractive to bit actors and movie technical personnel.
A portion of Sai Baba Complex, a favourite with Bollywood strugglers, has existed on the road for 16 years, but Ciba’s decision to sell its holdings five years ago sparked a flurry of construction. The Dheeraj group built a tower and two buildings that form their Dheeraj complex, and Oberoi Constructions are in the process of creating a mini-city complete with towers, malls like Lifestyle and Big Bazaar, multiplexes and other recreational facilities. Values in the area range from Rs 2,500-3,500 a sqft, through flats in the three 32 storey towers that will be part of the Oberoi Woods project have been booked at Rs 3,850 per sqft
Reflecting the impending explosion, CG Road’s walls are painted over with phone numbers of real estate agents and companies. But for now, there’s little convenience to be found in this neighbour-in-the-making. The only commercial establishments here are a clutch of real-estate stores and two grocery shops. For everything else, you need to take a ten-minute drive to Gokhuldham, the middle-class neighbourhood around the corner.
Artist Tushar Joag, who moved from Dadar Parsee Colony four years ago to live near his in-laws, says that there’s a complete lack of streetlife, probably because CG Road doesn’t have enough people living here yet to give it a distinct character. “Obviously Dadar Parsee Colony had more of a neighbourhood feel but I have got used to this place now,” says Joag.
But ironically, its isolation – amplified by vast verdant expanses of the Aarey Milk Colony – is the neighbourhood’s great attraction. Because the government-owned Aarey Colony isn’t likely to be developed for decades, CG Road’s residents are assured of a permanent green lung. “Where else will you get in so much greenery right outside your house asks Geeta Mehra, the owner of Sakshi Gallery, who has lived here for four years.
“It is one of the few places in the city where one can hear the chirping of birds like myna and the bulbul and traffic is unheard of,” exults filmmaker Arun Khopkar a Dheeraj Valley resident. Adding to the quietness is the fact BEST buses don’t travel on CG Road, because it’s still private property. Instead, residents must take the private bus that leave for Goregaon station every hour or take a rickshaw to their destination.
“This place reminds me a bit of how Hiranandani used to be a few years ago,” says Soumya Jayaram, who moved with her band from Powai’s Hiranandani Complex to her Dheeraj Valley flat only month. “Hiranandani has become too congested like any other crowded neighbourhood in the city. This place might end up going their way, but till then we will stay here and make use of most of this peace and quiet.” Eklavya C
WHERE: In Goregaon, just off the Western Express Highway
PROS: Views of the green, green hills
CONS: Lacks character, little neighbourhood feeling
Mohammed Ali Road #
When the Mohammed Ali Road flyover was thrown open to the public on May 1, 2002, residents spent the first day parading up and down the overpass, some on motorbikes and cars, others simply gathering up their families to take a 2.4km stroll. They could barely contain their excitement that the government had finally built a big new project in their neighbourhood.
Three years later, though, many Mohammed Ali Road residents are profoundly disenchanted with the flyover, which allows traffic to wiz past the fourth – floor windows, many now keep their windows permanently shut to ensure their privacy and to block out the increased levels of noise and dust. Shopkeepers on the street level aren’t much happier either. They’ve seen business drop as customers’ cars zip by above their heads, to stores in other neighbourhoods.
As a result, real-estate prices in the area have dropped significantly, says realtor Shabbir Whora, “Richer people are moving out to Bandra, Lokhandwala and Jogeshwari,” he said. No one wants to eat breakfast watching cars roar past the window.” Because few members of other communities are willing to move into the Muslim-dominated neighbourhood, sellers have limited number of buyers to choose from, a situation that has further depressed prices.
“The flyover has had quite a startling effect on Mohammed Ali Road,” said journalist Sameera Khan, who is writing a book about the neighbourhood, “People now realise that their initial enthusiasm was misplaced.” NF
PAGE 22 #
OLD NEIGHBOURHOODS #
New Bombay #
By JB D’SOUZA _ is a former city municipal commissioner and Maharashtra chief secretary
New Bombay was conceived by imaginative parents – Shirish Patel, Charles Correa and Pravina Mehta. I was simply the bumbling midwife chosen to deliver the concept. We were a set of visionaries with stars in our eyes, and we set out to produce a city not of architectural splendour and grand boulevards but one where the common man would like to live, stressing convenience in living and travelling to work. We would promote minimally for the affluent few and promote facilities for the largest number.
We would emphasise public transportation, giving private cars less importance and facilities. These would be buses on reserved tracks and special tracks for exclusive use of cyclists. And affordable housing with cross subsidies from the upper income groups. The very poorest, who could not afford even the cheapest pucca construction, would get developed plots with security of tenure, where they would put up temporary dwellings, which they would gradually improve, being assured of permanence.
And New Bombay would be a self-contained city, not a dormitory for Bombay’s work force. We would not let our project contribute to the daily pilgrimage into and out of South Bombay that has made life so harrowing for lakhs of Mumbaikars.
New Bombay has left our dreams behind. Nearly all our wonderful ambitions have turned sour. The transportation system? No different than elsewhere in India. Cycle tracks and bus lanes? Abandoned and forgotten.
The city has become a real estate developer’s dream Land prices have soured to levels we never dared to imagine. And as usual where land is costly, the government has helped its favourites with gifts at throwaway prices, on which these favourites have profiteered handsomely. This despite judicial rulings that public assets must not be disposed of at rates below their market value.
For example, under the pretence of supporting the Fourth Estate, successive Chief Ministers – Manohar Joshi, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh – have given Saamna and other publications even less reputable than that vast areas in prime locations, areas far larger than their needs as presses for fractions of their market price. These presses have disposed of the surplus land for high-income residential and commercial use, at a huge profit. Rackets like these flourished till the High Court intervened last year. These upright CMs defended their decisions on a plea that they were sanctified by their cabinets, actually implying that cabinets were not restricted by the law.
New Bombay has turned out not into a city planner’s dream, not even into a city of convenience for the common man, but a gold mine for land racketeers. And a dormitory too, for Mumbai.
THE NEXT BIG THING #
Three experts tell you where to look for your dream home:
Bhavik Vhimjyani,
Director, Neelkanth Group:
“Thane. With the number of quality constructions coming up, Thane is attracting a great quality of people. The local municipal commission has done a wonderful job cleaning up the area and working with developers to ensure proper planning and amenities. The eight-lane highway from the city takes you to Thane in 20 minutes, so it’s no longer out of the way. Thane gives you the chance to own your dream home – most people actually triple the size of their homes – with unbelievable facilities like squash courts, gardens and gyms. And all this for Rs. 2,000 per square foot”.
Tariq Vaidya,
Head of Asia Pacific Research, Knight Frank:
“Goregaon West, Central Mumbai and Thane, with Andheri bursting at its seams and Malad having been totally rejuvenated it’s only natural that in-between areas such as Goregaon and Jogeshwari blossom. For example, the old Norvartis property in Goregaon West is being developed on such a large scale that it is now the most in vogue construction. With the stock market doing well and interest rates as low as seven percent, people are moving out of family homes and opting to buy instead of renting and they’re getting more value for their money than ever before.
Sandeep Sadh, CEO,
Mumbaipropertyexchange.com:
“Powai and Thane. The basic rule when it comes to relocation is kids first, wife second and husband third. Areas that provide good infrastructure and amenities, cleanliness, central connectivity and safe residential complexes are set to grow. This is why given development area is becoming a small, self-sufficient township with schools, malls and recreation spaces, etc. Powai’s Hiranandani Gardens is a great example and Malad West, Kandivali East and Mulund followed suit. Moreover, the competition between builders is forcing them to add more and more properties to far-flung places. With more than 200 developments taking place in Thane, you’ll see a completely different skyline there from now.
PAGE 24 #
Nana chowk #
In recent years, Kalpana Patel’s social life has hit an unforeseen bump each evening. The resident of Union Building, opposite Grant Road station, must stay home between 8.30 – 9.30pm to store up all the water she and her family are going to need to get them through the night and the next day.
It’s only one of the problems residents of Nana Chowk have been facing since a rash of skyscrapers began coming up in their neighbourhood, taxing the area’s already strained infrastructure. The streets have become more congested with double-parked cars, and light to older buildings is being blocked out by their mammoth neighbours.
Patel and her neighbours are victims of an amendment in 1999 to a section of Maharashtra’s Development Control Regulations that allowed dilapidated buildings on the island-city to be redeveloped by builders, with almost no limit on how high these buildings can rise. Through the well-meaning regulation was intended to ensure that tenants of crumbling, cessed buildings – so called because residents pay a cess to the state board for repairs – would be housed at no cost to the state, a petition filed in the High Court last year alleges that the provision is being widely misused by builders.
The authorities have sanctioned projects even in cases “where the buildings in question are in excellent condition … and do not really need reconstruction”, says the petition, filed by former state chief secretary JB D’Souza, businessman Cyrus Guzder and civil engineer Shirish Patel. It adds that the amendment “has resulted in an accelerating and ongoing degradation of the island city’s infrastructure and public support systems, notably water supply, sewerage, road transport, open/green space and fire-fighting safety standards.” That’s a reality Kalpana Patel and her neighbours already live with – in addition to the knowledge that the situation will get worse in the coming months as other skyscrapers now under construction are finally completely. NF
ALL FRILLS #
If you still think you’re privileged because you have a balcony large enough to fit a love seat, take a look at some of these way-out amenities offered by developers in many new neighbourhoods.
Knife-edge swimming pool (Since it’s situated on the edge of the hill, you can look straight down on to the valley. Nice.)
Passive recreation area (In laymen’s terms, a spot to sit your ass down.)
Mound lawn (Pretty, slightly elevated, green area in the shape of a curve.)
Acupressure path (Walkway scattered with poky stuff.)
Open-air Jacuzzi (Auntie, can you make Uncle wax his back?)
Artificial waterfall (Because the sound of nature is calming.)
Meditation room (Translation: empty space with white walls very far away from children’s hopscotch area. See below.)
Hopscotch area (You can’t just draw on the ground with chalk anymore, silly. This isn’t a building compound, it’s a residential complex.)
Zen fountain (Fountain made in Tarapur, made to look like it’s made in Tokyo.)
Bamboo forest (Just in case it’s getting too surreal for you.)
Skating rink (No jokes; we genuinely love this one.) DT-D
CURLICULE CENTRAL #
Look who’s designing Mumbai:
Hafeez Contractor
You can love him or hate him, but you can’t ignore him. The high-profile architect is everywhere – hotels, corporate offices, apartment buildings, residential complexes, retail spaces, public projects, you name it. While other architects manage four to five projects at a time, this PR genius juggles dozens – and they’re usually the cream of the crop. Colaba’s Buckley Court isn’t so bad, we’ll admit, but most of his new housing projects are absolute eyesores with their jagged balconies, wired colour schemes and fantastical shapes. We appreciate expertise but it’s definitely time for some fresh blood.
Prem Nath
Another old-timer, architect Prem Nath is responsible for projects as varied as deisgning bungalows as varied as designing bungalows for actors Jitendra and Shatraghan Sinha to the Nehru Planetarium and GT Hospital, amoung several new housing developments across the city. Interestingly he has his own – rather intriguing – views on Vastu. Check out www.premkumar.com for more.
Reza Kabul
At 152.5 meters-high Shreepati Arcade claims to be Mumbai’s tallest building (the Oberoi Towers is a mere 117 meters, Express Towers and the Air India Building are both 105 meters). This skyscraper has been designed by architect Reza Kabul, who is behind projects like Everest Chambers, Mega Mall and the Radission Hotel in Mauritius. And in case you’re still thinking about Shreepati Arcade, it has six elevators that can take you from the lobby to the 45th floor in 35 seconds. Just hope they aren’t playing Kenny G. DT-D
PAGE 26 #
Parel #
When Lintas moved to Parel in the early 1990s, the area – dominated by 54 cotton textile mills and the homes of the tens of thousands who worked in them – was considered so up market, ad agency head Alyque Padamsee decided to rechristen the neighbourhood “Upper Worli”. Today, a five-star hotel sits over the smokeless chimneys, the High Street Phoenix shopping and entertainment that draws thousands of visitors from all over Mumbai each day, and luxury apartment blocks are sprouting up all across the neighbourhood. In June, India’s most valuable real estate was transacted in the area, by the Gurgaon-based DLF group which paid 702 crores for the 17-acre Mumbai Textile Mills.
This new look became possible because of notification in 1991 of the Maharashtra government’s Development Control rules, which allowed mill owners to sell their plots if they gave up one-third to the city for open space and another third for public housing. This formula has been proposed by architect Charles Correa, the country’s best known urban planner. However, these regulations were modified a decade later to except owners from sharing land with the city if they redevelop only the structures already standing on the plot. Other redeveloping mills were to share only the vacant parts of their plots – leaving merely a sliver of the 600acres of developable land in the neighbourhood available for public purposes.
The ad hoc development of Parel has many critics, among them, ironically, Correa himself. His main objection: There’s no structural plan to build roads, public transport nodes, schools, and other infrastructure for the neighbourhood. “These sales are myopic,” said Correa. “They’re selling off huge parcels of land, but you can’t service 10 or 20 acre parcels of land without roads. If you build private roads, like they are doing now, how do you ensure that a private road in one complex will connect to a road in the neighbouring parcel of land? How will sewage lines runs?”
As Correa points out, Parel offers space starved Mumbai the opportunity to redefine itself. But the area’s potential can be unleased only if the needs of the people who live and work in the area are anticipated and provided for. To best help unlock Parel’s offers space-starved Mumbai the opportunity to redefine itself. But the area’s potential can be unleased only if the needs of the people who live and work in the area are anticipated and provided for. To best help unlock Parel’s – and the city’s – energies, he’s drawn up a plan for the area himself (see map). Among its highlights:
Strengthening east-west transport corridors in the area, which are now served by train lines running from north to south.
Integrating Elphinstone Road station on the Western Railway with Parel station on the Central line.
Widening Acharya Donde Marg, which runs across the length of the island city to turn it into an artery that would run to Sewri and eventually to the Trans_harbout Link to New Bombay, Correa also suggests reinforcing roads running from Worli to Sewri and from Haji Ali to Hay Bunder, with efficient public transport.
Correa also has a proposal to regenerate the space for public amenities and affordable housing that evaporated when the DC rules were amended in 2001. He suggests raising the FSI – or floor space index, which refers to the size of a building in relation to the area of the plot on which its stands – to 1.73 from the current 1.33. this would give mill owners just as much developable space, through using only half the plots, leaving the rest for public amenities. But rather than leaving municipal amenities. But rather than leaving the rest for public for public amenities. But rather than leaving municipal and state authorities to oversee the construction of these public services, Correa proposes that the job be carried out by a City Improvement Trust (reflecting a similar body that was formed in 1879), consisting of eminent citizens. “They should be given the task of deciding what the land should be used for,” he said. Simultaneously, he recommends organising a competition for architects and developers to design and construct affordable housing, after laying down minimum quality standards.
“The marginal FSI increase from 1.33 to 1.73 in this area will allow everyone to come out a winner: the mill-owners, the government and the city,” Correa said. “Are they so myopic, or so greedy, that they can’t see what is so clearly in their own self-interest?”
His conclusion: “The chance to plan for Parel, and Bombay, is something we’ll never get again. But if we mess it up, we will derail the future of the city.” NF
PAGE 27 #
sourced _ July 29 - August 11 2005 VOL.1 ISSUE 24 | NEW NEIGHBOURHOODS And how they’re changing the way we live