Insomnia at Marine Drive

Bolstered by its claim to resettle slum-dwellers, the Centre plans to recast Mumbai’s coastal zone much to the joy of the builders’ lobby. This could spell disaster, argue ecologists

Gajanan Khergamker Mumbai

Today, if a tsunami-like disaster were to hit Mumbai, a lot of its fury would be buffered by organic bulwarks — the mangroves and salt pans — that protect the city. A few years down the line, the mangroves and salt pans will be gone, leaving behind a mass of concrete ready to crumble at the slightest natural provocation. Indeed, there will be regular repeats of the cloud-burst of 2005 that catapulted the city's dismal infrastructure so transparently before the global arena.

As far as the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) issue is concerned, it was initially perceived as 'nature versus development'. But then, that's a matter of the past. Faced with a virtual roadblock erected by a strong environmentalist lobby, those who favoured development altered their ploy. After having camouflaged it as a hindrance to slum resettlement plans and deriving immense political mileage out of the same, the move came through. After all, the city offers only 0.03 acres for every 1,000 people.

Now, the Union environment ministry plans to recast the CRZ guidelines that govern construction along the coast. An imminent draft notification modifying the blanket ban on construction within 500 metres of the high tide line is being readied to change things drastically for the much-relieved developer lobby which is all poised to re-work Mumbai's skyline. In accordance with a 'district-wise approach', a 'hazard line' will be drawn separately for each coastal district to define where construction can begin. Parameters like the pattern of storm-surges, sea erosion, topography, and maximum anticipated sea level rise over a 100-year period will play a vital role in the etching of this line.

It is perhaps the builders' lobby that will benefit the most. The move is expected to free large tracts of land along the sea for construction activities that will, it is officially claimed, advertently speed up Mumbai's 'slum rehabilitation' plans.

Incidentally, the move to recast the guidelines follows recommendations of the MS Swaminathan Committee set up in 2004. The committee said the existing guidelines had “no scientific basis and were obstructing legitimate commercial activity in coastal areas”.

Among other zones, Mumbai's 5,500-acre salt pan sprawl is in danger of being buried under a cement-and-steel onslaught. Although officially the salt pans are to be utilised “only to re-house slum dwellers displaced by crucial infrastructure projects in the city,” how much of the good intentions actually percolate down to the poor is anybody's guess!

The plan to increase floor space index (FSI) to 2.5 for the salt pans which, ironically, fall under the stringent CRZ prohibiting any construction close to creeks, mangroves and the high tide line, has caused ripples among environmentalists who fear the worst following a realty boom in the environmentally-fragile zones.

As opposed to the blanket 500 metre rule, the new rule only talks about the 'setback' line based on the “vulnerability of the coast to natural and manmade hazards”. “On the landward side of the setback line, in respect of new and existing physical and social infrastructure and habitations, there would be no additional restrictions under this notification on construction, modernisation, or expansion, beyond those under the laws and regulations of the local authority,” reads the proposed notification.