An international property group has drawn up recommendations to have offices moved out of south Mumbai to make way for multinationals.
Space must be made available in south Mumbai to provide for the Merrill Lynches and the Arthur Andersens of this world to live in the manner in which they are accustomed, Geoff Marsh from the group Chesterton Meghraj said here. The company has been formed jointly by the property company Chesterton and Meghraj, an Asian-owned bank based in London.
No new development has been allowed in south Mumbai since 1979, Marsh said. The Merrill Lynches are located in technologically obsolete buildings, he said.
Marsh, who made the recommendations after a few visits to Mumbai, said Nariman Point is full of back offices in front office space. There is a need, Marsh said, to move these out and get Westerners and top Indian companies in there.
He said whole offices could be moved out from south Mumbai, mentioning particularly the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). The LIC is sitting over a huge asset, he said, and would be more efficient elsewhere. Nariman Point, he said, must be reserved for face to face decision makers.
Bandra Kurla, where new office complexes are coming up, is a bleak old place, Marsh said. South Mumbai is a place businessmen understand and want to be.
He said the Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus (earlier the Victoria Terminus) is a prime site in south Mumbai for development of a state-of-the-art office complex where railway sidings and other facilities are presently located. This, he said, could site Merrill Lynch which works at present out of four or five buildings.
About the traffic problems that development could generate, Marsh said, Traffic is not such a problem as losing this opportunity. It is dangerous, dangerous to have a policy of decentralisation for core occupiers.City planners are opposed at present to any development at this site, Marsh said. They are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, he said.
Another piece of land in south Mumbai that could be sold to private property developers are the sheds housing the Maharashtra government pay office, Marsh said. The state government is desperate for funds and this sale could bring in many millions of pounds, he said. Lack of growth where such opportunities are available meant that the city is getting fossilised, he said, and fossilising is a recipe for decline.
Marsh presented slides that showed among other sites the fishing village between Nariman Point and Cuff Parade. This square kilometre is one of the most valuable, even after a 40 per cent fall in prices, he said.
Marsh also exhibited pictures of the old buildings along Marine Drive. These, he said, are million-pound apartments being rented at a pound a foot. But this site is only a small step from that to the pristine quality that real estate here ought to command.
He said it was surprising that an astute business community had not found a way out. The business community is astute, the city planners are not.
Marsh said Mumbai could do with overnight deregulation of the kind that had been seen in the former communist bloc. That creates distortions but it does get the nonsense out of the act quickly.
Given the changes in Mumbai he thought necessary, a new chessboard can be laid out within two years.
