The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation wants to allocate more land for ‘multipurpose use’ instead of restricting the land for only commercial or residential use, so as to facilitate the setting up of more business districts and township projects.
The revised plan will identify critical areas like transportation and employment-generation so that people don’t have to travel long distance for their daily chores. Research and planning for the revised DP of the city will also be made with the help of private urban planners and designers instead of the civic officials. Expressions of Interest will be invited soon to carry out a socio-economic survey of the city and identify the land use pattern.
Chief engineer (Development Plan) Ashok Shintre said since Mumbai’s dynamics are determined by the migratory population, it was necessary to carry out the land use survey keeping this factor in mind. “There is a large number of population that comes to the city for work purpose and this results in haphazard growth and development, putting load on the civic infrastructure,” he said.
The development plan is a blue-print for developing the city where land is reserved for various purposes as per the need of the citizens and is implemented for the next 20 years. The plan was last revised in the 1990s.
“We want to mark the land as ‘multipurpose’ so that a complex or building will have as many facilities used by people like restaurants, hospital or dispensary, office space and even residential quarters. This will ensure that people don’t have to travel long distance by trains or vehicles,” Shintre said.
Those land reserved for multi-purpose use will be given higher floor space index so that the maximum land use can be made. The civic administration wants to encourage hubs like the Bandra- Kurla complex that will include not just office space but also other key factors of residence, entertainment, health and education.
Civic officials said that use of multipurpose land will also ease the load on transport and roads for which special allocation is made in the development plan. “If people stop traveling long distance, there will be less need to mark new spaces for parking and roads,” said a senior civic official.
Last year, a committee of civic officials and other beaurocrats had recommended that the BMC look at several new factors like population pattern and holistic development of entire zones to arrive at solutions.
The civic administration has already initiated the process of revising the development plan and has appointed a town planner for the purpose.
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