There is a need to just forget the dream to make Mumbai a Shanghai and the state government should concentrate to make it another New York. Mumbai actually needs to go vertical to adjust millions of people in the city. According to the report, the World Bank has suggested an FSI policy like New York.
Officials said that Mumbai could be transformed into a world-class city if it would cope up with too many old laws that need to be amended from state government and the Union government as well.
The FSI is the ratio of the total floor area of any building on a certain location to the size of the land of that location, or the limit imposed on such a ratio. In New York, the minimum FSI is 8 while in Mumbai it is 1.33.
Songsu Choi, World Bank’s Lead Urban Economist said:
The problem of housing for the ever increasing population is the biggest hurdle in the path of development of the city.
There are too many people competing against one another for buying a house. This has to be changed and the housing stock has to be increased. The state government has imposed too many regulations in Mumbai.
He further said that since land is limited in Mumbai so it should grow vertically like New York to make builders competing with one another to woo people who want to buy houses for themselves. Water supply, slums and sanitation projects in urban and rural areas are some of the major problems in urban areas like Mumbai and the water delivery system.
Maharashtra Chief Secretary Johny Joseph said that there is an economic boom all over the world and Mumbai, the financial capital of India, should take advantage of the situation. The government is open to the WB suggestions on FSI to provide world-class infrastructure in the city.
There are not even enough hotel rooms in Mumbai to provide accommodations to investors. In Dubai, there are 1.25 lakh hotel rooms but in Mumbai, one cannot find more than 5,000 hotel rooms.
The government is again using its resources to make yet another policy for Mumbai. This time, the leaders are dreaming to make Mumbai not Shanghai or Singapore but New York. Dreaming is good but making dreams true needs strong will power. Do we have such determination in us?
