http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_mmrda-set-to-take-over-sewri-nhava-sheva-project_1357389

Wednesday, March 10, 2010, DNA, Daily News and Analysis, Mumbai.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will take over the biggest and most delayed infrastructure project — the Sewri-Nhava Sheva Trans Harbour Link.

An MMRDA official said the authority has proposed to extend the 22km link, planned to connect Sewri to Chirle village in Nhava, to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, adding another 28km to it.

The MMRDA will be the sole agency owning and executing the project, the official said. “A government resolution (GR) is expected once the chief minister is briefed about the development this week,” he said. “We had a meeting with the Union surface transport secretary at Mantralaya on Monday. The Centre is likely to share some of the cost.”

The project has been on paper for almost four decades now. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation was supposed to implement it at a cost of Rs6,000 crore. “Since the MSRDC was in financial doldrums, we took up the project,” another official said.

“If the project were to be executed by one organisation and owned by another, it would have created unwanted problems. Also, the MSRDC tried two financial models — the cash contract and build-operate-transfer (BOT) — and both failed to generate any interest.”

So, how is MMRDA’s proposal different from that of the MSRDC?
According to officials, the project needs to be made more viable to interest infrastructure builders. “With the MTHL being stretched by another 28km, it will join the Mumbai-Pune Expressway somewhere near Khopoli,” one of the officials said. “This may increase the project’s cost by another Rs500 crore. But the connectivity will be much better.”

The trans-harbour link may not get a metro line simultaneously, however. “We will first build six lanes [three on either side] with a provision for one more on either side,” the official said. “These additional lanes will be used to build the metro line once the surrounding area are developed.”

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Urban Design Studio II

I: Mumbai’s Eastern Waterfront

Urban Design Program

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation

Columbia University, New York

The site

The context of the studio was the 30 km of shoreline on the eastern coast of Mumbai, one of the richest cities in Asia in economic as well as cultural terms, but also one where over 60% of the people live in informal settlements without adequate infrastructure. Within this, the studio focused on the docklands, which were the raison d’être of Mumbai’s founding and development till recently. Mumbai Port Trust owns approximately 1800 acres of this land between Colaba’s Sasoon docks and Wadala. These were previously used for container yards, warehouses and ship repairing. With the moving of the port activities to the more modern container port across the harbor, this premier land situated in the Mumbai Island is underutilized for marginal activities such as ship breaking and recycling. The shape this redevelopment will take will deeply impact the future of Mumbai.

The redevelopment involves major ecological and social issues such as the displacement of dockworker communities and their livelihood. It also has the potential to provide much needed public space and amenities in the densest city in the world (22,000 persons per square kilometer). However, the issues of such developments are complex, as seen in the Mill Land redevelopment just a few years ago, where the land got sold off to developers who quickly built luxury housing for profits. This occurred in spite of the vocal opposition of NGOs and prominent architects and planners who lobbied for holistic development that would provide housing and amenities to all segments of Mumbai’s society.

Above all, the Mumbai Eastern Waterfront project needs to balance the following conflicting needs:

- Environmental concerns with the pressure for speculative real-estate development

- Interest of owners and developers vs. that of residents and workers.

- Interest of stakeholders and residents vs. citywide and regional interests

Issues

1. Waterfront sustainability in the context of the Mumbai estuary: reclamation in the face of sea level rise, flooding and monsoons.

2. Pollution of the Eastern Waterfront and destruction of the marine ecology.

3. Social equity, rights of the people who are currently living in the docklands and working in Mumbai’s informal economy.

4. Potential of the waterfront as a new public space for Mumbai.

5. Provision of affordable housing on the site.

6. Historic preservation of the docklands fabric, and local histories.

7. Transportation infrastructure to connect the Eastern Waterfront with the rest of the city and New Mumbai, across the harbor.

Locations

1. Colaba – Gateway: Tourism

2. Ferry Wharf – Seaway Commute

3. PD’Mello Road: Informal Habitats and settlements, Relocation, Rehabilitation

4. Sewri: Infrastructural projects, links with New Mumbai, Environmental Impact, Mangroves

5. Informal Economy at Daru Khana

Download CAD Map of Bombay (45MB Download)