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From: "Architexturez." <interface.services@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:18:41 +0530
Alarm sounded against use of open space
Express News Service
Mumbai, October 27: On the face of it, the impending redevelopment of
1,800 acres of land belonging to the Mumbai Port Trust along the city’s
eastern waterfront may have nothing in common with the BMC proposed
policy for handing over civic recreation grounds and playgrounds to
private parties on a caretaker basis. Yet, citizens’ groups and
activists on Friday sounded a single alarm for both: Mumbai, with about
0.015 acres of open space per person, can’t afford to lose more land to
unplanned construction.
The redevelopment of vast tracts of land owned by the Mumbai Port Trust
land on the eastern waterfront — the MbPT is in the process of
finalising a land use policy for these 1,800 acres — could be the
congested island city’s last chance to reorganise itself, said Pankaj
Joshi, architect and executive director of the Urban Design research
Institute (UDRI), which has drafted a painstakingly detailed vision plan
for the regeneration of the eastern waterfront. “Nobody even knows
there’s a waterfront beyond those walls,” he said.
cont'd....
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=206912