One of my abiding and earliest memories of Bombay, as it was called back then, is of the sea that made the city. More specifically, of taking in the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea, with its waves crashing on the Chowpatty and along the Marine Drive, from the front of the top deck of the double-decker BEST route 123 from Tardeo to Colaba-Navy Nagar. The summer heat and humidity were quickly forgotten, the hair was all tangles, dust made a layer on the skin but who cared? Seeing the sea was worth it, experiencing it up close was joy. The seafront was a travel companion along Haji Ali, further down along Worli seaface, and into the suburbs. The bends at Chowpatty and Haji Ali evoked a special feel. Among the rare treats to self with the measly first salary back in the 1990s were cab rides just to experience the seafronts of Mumbai, wind in the hair and song on the lips.
Those seafronts are all gone now. They have taken away my sea.
Rather, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, has taken away the magnificent views of the sea, open 24x7 to the people of Mumbai, in the guise of building the coastal road that will save a few minutes for a marginal section of the city’s population. The pleasure of being on the Marine Drive is spoiled by the hideous fibre-glass cover that rears its ugly self between us and the sea. At Haji Ali, there is no view of the sea at all — unless one is in a car on the outermost arm of the coastal road. Worli seafront is a sorry story altogether. And the construction is in full swing in Bandra with stretches being laid out in the sea at four locations where the next phase of the coastal road will be built.
The seafronts of Mumbai have changed forever, there’s no going back to the simpler, accessible, uncut views of the sea from the city’s existing roads, unless one uses the coastal road every time. It may be a toll-free road but it can also be intimidating to be on with exits and interchanges that will take time getting used to. And it will someday extend to Kandivali. The questions now are what happens to the large amount of land that was created as part of the coastal road project and how do the common people of Mumbai — the millions without cars — access the sea or seafronts to perhaps simply watch the sun set?
A group of nearly 70 architects in the city have been exercised about these questions. They took the issue to the court where the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said that it was too late to change the design and so on. The latest move comes from architect Alan Abraham who wrote a letter this August 15 to the BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani with a list of suggestions that appear sensible and implementable if the focus is to use the created land for the benefit of many, even as the road benefits only a few.
In the 29-kilometre coastal road, a staggering 111 hectares (274 acres) of land was created (reclaimed is the popular term but inaccurate because it suggests that there was land originally which has been taken back) for only the 11-kilometre stretch that connects Marine Drive to the Bandra Worli Sea Link. The cost of this coastal stretch is an eye-popping Rs 14,000 crore. Of the 111 hectares created, approximately 27 hectares was used to construct the road itself and the BMC has plans to develop a promenade, landscaped gardens, walking and jogging tracks, a biodiversity park and parking areas. After these are done, there will still be around 70-72 hectares left over.
It is this land that the group of architects — and architect Abraham — wants the BMC to make design interventions on so that it is accessible to all people of Mumbai 24x7 even if the parks, gardens, and other amenities have regulated entry. It is crucial that this land benefits the public of Mumbai and enhances the city’s ecological and social fabric, they argue. Abraham’s suggestions — as that of other architects like Brinda Somaya, Nitin Killawala, Pranav Naik made earlier — would make perfect sense to millions of Mumbaikars who probably just long for a view of the sea from the buses they are in, for access to the seafront for simple pleasures, for that indescribable joy that fills the senses with the sea views.
Create continuous seafront spaces instead of the fragmented spaces planned, make the 7-kilometre seafront stretch accessible and integrated into the city’s fabric, ensure universal access and disallow private control or restricted entry of the open spaces created, connect existing parks and gardens along this stretch to create a continuous green corridor, and so on. Why would the BMC, the custodian of public spaces and people’s larger good, not want this or disagree? In fact, it should be sine qua non — not a matter of debate and demands and suggestions — that the seafronts and all amenities should be made universally accessible to all people of Mumbai.
That this has to be argued and fought for shows how little public interest matters to the civic body. But this opens up spaces in the city’s public that would otherwise not have happened — such as the suggestion for creating green spaces and connecting gardens to make a green corridor and so on. This is Mumbai’s best opportunity in decades to make green and open spaces, notwithstanding the Central Park proposal to be executed at or off the Mahalaxmi Race Course, but there is no point to them if they are not for all Mumbaikars. And if they do not allow unalloyed views of the sea.
What is Mumbai without its sea accessible to the majority that merely want to view it, spend a few moments by it, take in the enormous looming magnificence of the water and forget the hard urban life for a while? Why should sea views be affordable and available only to a select few who can pump in crores into apartments or drive on the coastal road in their cars? How is this infrastructure for the masses, Mumbai’s millions? The ball is in the BMC’s court to give us back our sea.
Smruti Koppikar, senior journalist and urban chronicler, writes extensively on cities, development, gender, and the media. She is the Founder Editor of the award-winning online journal ‘Question of Cities’
