Mumbai’s Public Transport Hubs Turning Into Commercial Hotspots

Public plots meant for public transportation utilities are increasingly being given up for commercial development by the government authorities.  State’s transport minister Pratap Sarnaik invited developers to take up 13,000 acres of depot lands across prime locations in Mumbai for commercial development by offering them on 98-year-long leases. Sarnaik believes that this kind of commercial development would infuse fresh funds into the loss-making state transport department. Mumbai iconic public transportation utility, the BEST has already given up three of its depots for commercial development. The BEST had commissioned global financial consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers to identify strategies for commercial development of land held by its depots, staff quarters etc. The BEST has already developed three depots, Mahim, Yari Road and Kurla – out of its 27 depots in Mumbai for commercial development and another three – Bandra, Dindoshi and Deonar – are in the pipeline. The BEST’s depots at Dharavi and Kala Killa depot, are also being offered to Adani to be clubbed along with Dharavi redevelopment. This is not including the 45 acres of railway land (scaled down from 100 acres of land earlier) being handed over to Adani for Dharavi redevelopment. The BMC has already handed over 53 hectares of land reclaimed for the Coastal Road project to a corporate body for development. Incidentally, even as all this is being usurped when the state government took almost 33 hectares or 80 acres of prime forest land to develop into a car shed for the city’s upcoming Metro network. Not surprisingly urban policy analysts like Hussain Indorewalla noted that “Public agencies see themselves not as stewards of public land acting in public interest, but as asset managers and private landlords rolled into one.”