Is Malabar Hill headed to become Maharashtra’s Joshimath

The sheer callousness and greed of mankind was all undone by the hill, when it began cracking and gave way due to the weight it was carrying on its back. The back of the mountain broke like an old man who has been overloaded with weight of greed. A Doctrine of Public Trust establishes that the State is the trustee of natural habitat and must prevent their misuse. In Joshimath, this doctrine was undermined by unregulated development, though all development was supposedly with requisite permissions. Besides the calamity, Joshimath incident is famous for most important landmark judgements in Indian courts, interesting and setting precedents, from which we can learn.
Recently I came across an article in the newspaper on a redevelopment in Malabar Hill.

The News Article – Press ReleaseA new standard for luxury living is coming to South Mumbai. This 1.43-acre project offers a development potential of 0.7 million square feet, providing new, premium homes for existing residents while also creating a substantial portion for sale. Evaluating the concept “a ground area of approx. 1.43 acres => 43560 x 1.43= 62290 sqft plot area & a plan for 7 lakh sq ft gives a construction of 11.2376 times. As a common man I understand it as it is carrying a construction FSI of 11.2376. I am dismayed at how this is possible in view of the rules, laws, courts, being alive in Democratic India. Now if the entire hill gets redeveloped on these parameters, Imagine the density & extent of digging, to happen for the foundations of 70-80 storeyed high rises on an eco-sensitive Malabar Hill, and if the hill starts to disintegrate under the weight of the redevelopment of 11+ times of ground area, to create a concrete jungle, through the length and breadth of Malabar Hill, as all existing buildings are made on sale FSI of 1.33+ are in need of redevelopment. The occupied FSI may or may not be 11+ but the construction FSI including the free of FSI construction would far exceed 11+, which is something to delve upon for every Malabar hill resident.Here in this press release it may also be possible that the government authorities have no role and have no intention of approving such a proposal, or the developer and redevelopment committee are not disclosing the entire truth to the society and the public also when announcing this project.The principle of natural justice mandates that any DA or further proceedings based on misinformation or unclear information, cannot be held valid by any court of law, we can evaluate only the data that is publicly available to us. The silence of the resident members has been bought based on greedy offerings, without revealing the entire economics. The extra FSI for redevelopment was the basis of the commercial viability point of view and that was not a greedy aspect, it was a needy aspect, where we were considering the construction of 2.7 FSI Plus fungible plus premium etc.

The authorities taking a penalty for every transgression and allowing all these transgressions to collect revenue underlined under the more, more & more concept and ideology – more revenue – more penalty – more violations and hence more money for the state and also for everyone.

The simple plans ( DP 2034) and laws created for a regulated growth are blatantly undone, removed, violated, the court rulings of road width and height, the allowances for boundary distance restrictions, roads are put on DP and removed from DP based on need of the redevelopment projects, not on Town planning principles, the principles are made to adhere to the convenience of the redevelopment, the allowances for fire safety, the allowances for exit-entry all being managed to make redevelopment possible at any costs, and not redevelopment at the most safe and viable option, so redevelopment is now an opportunity to make more, more and more. 

It has been clearly made evident that the fire brigade has only 32 storied ladders, the common water availability in area is limited and hence there is water rationing, the waste pick up is an issue today, with such living area creation and population growth, the roads are finite and the current traffic density already an issue, will the hill be able to keep up with the utilities and services, which are absolutely needed for existence and daily living. As we cannot have overhead storage of water at this height we have underground tanks with sufficient capacity to engage in any fire incident as the fire safety cannot depend on the common fire brigade infrastructure, but the load of these water tanks each of 50kl to 100 KL or more will come on the hill as this is needed for each high rise separately and cannot be shared. Imagine the load on the hill if every project is a high rise above 180-200 metres. This is indeed a load worth working out on the computer for further calculation of viability on eco sensitive Malabar Hill.

Do we think what will happen to these towers, when they need maintenance and repairs, do we have the infrastructure for that, or for fire safety, or natural calamities? Just building with greed and selfishness will lead to safety failures beyond our control. The wind speed and environmental degradation due to higher salty humidity on the seafront, will make simplest of maintenance task more or most difficult. This itself calls for caution and attention to height, on the sea front, which is never a deterrent to the greedy brigade.

Malabar hill is at the jutting out portion of the land on a hill and on sea front edge, of what we lovingly call the queen’s necklace, what if the Malabar hill side of the necklace snaps at the weak point due to the load being placed on its back, if such a situation arises what will happen to one of the most prestigious areas, hosting the who’s who of Maharashtra government and top cream of the Indian economy. 

I raise the question, Should the Government of Maharashtra not have an EIA – environment impact assessment study done to check the stability and sustainability of such 1:11 plus FSI allowance. If such assessment is available, then it should be made public to keep the average citizen informed, so that the independent structural engineers can also review such assessment for public safety.

We take nature and its elements for granted, but when they take back from us, then we are all helpless, all our earnings, all our richness, all our high place in society becomes redundant, when we are buried in the rubble of the wrath of nature. What you own or what you have built or what modus operandi you used to build or to reach where you reached becomes dust in a matter of seconds and minutes.

The need and greed have to be demarcated, and the need should not be replaced by greed. By my common man thinking, I feel there should be a difference in central Mumbai having a higher max permissible height allowed as they are on more stable ground, the CRZ was upheld since years and decades, and all of sudden this CRZ has become redundant, I sure would like to know how such a strong restriction was ruled redundant after years of existence, either those years of CRZ chains was wrong or this present lax attitude is wrong, but the basic simple question remains, will the jutting out hill, on the seafront, withstand the weight, is the question only time can tell. Allowing one project at construction FSI of 11+ opens the doors to all projects with similar calculations. If one builder earns money at this construction FSI, what will stop others from following suit. 

I am no structural stability expert, but I am a common engineer to understand that greed leads to failure and is this our greed which will lead to failure of the hill, as a common man I raise this question to all concerned, are we heading for Malabar Hill to become the Joshimath of Maharashtra.