Cramped Mumbai has less open space than Tokyo
JLL NOTE – Recommends throwing open unused spaces such as western coastline
In a city starved of breathing spaces, open plots, such as parks and recreation grounds, account for only 1.95 sq m per capita. This is not only way below the open space available in other cities in the country but is also worse than the standards in worlds most congested cities such as Tokyo and New York, according to a recent note by the real estate consultants Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
Tokyo and New York have open spaces at 6 and 2.5 sq m per capita. The note points out that Mumbais abysmal record is grossly below the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations standard of 9 sq m per capita. Mumbai, for its 14 million people, has open space of only 14 sq km i.e. about 2.5 per cent of the total area of 480 sq km. In comparison, Delhi has 20 per cent of its area reserved as open spaces, while Chandigarh fares even better at 35 per cent.
Ashutosh Limaye, head of research and real estate intelligence service at JLL, said in the note that many of the premium residential projects today cash in on this need for space in the metropolis by offering sports arena, theme gardens, swimming pools and podium parks. A few even offer a semblance of open spaces by constructing personal decks, flower beds, terrace jogging tracks and lily ponds on every floor. This, however, leads to a very high loading component on the carpet area, which buyers have to eventually pay for.
Mumbais real estate is creating its own family level open spaces in its residential projects. Only the crème de la crème can afford this, but the aspiration fast trickles down from luxury to high-end and then to mid-end residences where one pays almost twice the money for buying non-residential space while buying a house, Limaye pointed out. He added that besides making real estate unaffordable, the highrises also lead to heavy carbon footprint, higher energy consumption and deprives other residences in the vicinity of quality air and ventilation.
He recommended throwing open the unused spaces such as the 35-km western coastline, the natural harbour on its eastern coast and also the 50 sq km national park where no public access is allowed yet are being steadily usurped by encroachments.