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The Draft Development plan (DP) 2034 for Mumbai, which was scrapped on Tuesday, was a blueprint developing maximum city for the next 20 years. The plan ran into rough weather for having been prepared with little application of the mind on the part of the civic authorities, and came in for a lot of flak particularly for its emphasis on the development of highrises, compromising on the cities open spaces and architectural legacy. Here are five things to know about the DP and how it would have impacted citizens of maximum city:
1. No place for heritage
About two thirds of the city's 1,400-odd heritage structures and sites did not find a place in the DP, some of the more prominent ones being Town Hall and the Asiatic Society of Bombay that is housed in it, Marine Drive, which is home to the largest number of art deco buildings after Florida’s Miami beach, Bandra's iconic Mount Mary Church, Five Gardens at Dadar-Matunga, and Bandra Railway Station
2. Open spaces compromised
The plan compromised the city's open spaces, the most prominent one being the 4,000-acre Aarey Colony at Goregaon, which was a no-development zone prior to this DP. The civic authorities were planning to commercialise the entire area with housing projects, educational institutions, a zoo and transport facilities in an ecologically fragile location.
3. CRZ violation
The DP had made provisions for a 34-km freeway along Mumbai's western coastline, at a cost of Rs 8,000 crore. Its construction would have necessitated the reclamation of 160 acres of land from the sea, and would, therefore, have impact the livelihood of scores of fishing communities. A 500-acre coastal plot in Goregaon had also been marked as a residential/commercial zone, despite the fact that it is surrounded by ecologically sensitive mangroves and has been given no-development status under CRZ rules.
4. Widening of non-existent roads
Suburban Mumbai took the brunt of the DP's road-widening and construction brainwave, with as many as seven roads proposed in Bandra's Pali Hill locality alone. One of these would have cut right through St Anne's High School premises. To add insult to injury, several residential areas had been marked as residential/commercial zones, making provision for hawking activities. Other ill-conceived plans included widening of a non-existent road in Marol, which would have cut through the heritage property of an Evangelist church, and construction of a road rght over Mount Mary Church steps.
5. Higher is (not necessarily) better
Prior to this DP, redevelopment of Grade-III heritage structures was limited to eight storeys. The new DP, however, raised that limit to 10 storeys, with a provision to build even beyond that, subject to the municipal commissioner's approval.
