Architects put up a green front

MUMBAI: If the India United Mills at Dadar—which faces Cadell Road on one side and the sea on the other —were to be brought down, what should come up in its place?
A shopping mall, a hotel or a new, green waterfront for the city? It''s the third, most people- friendly option, that architects and planners are lobbying for with the National Textile Corporation (NTC), which is disposing of 72 hectares of land across 17 mills in Central Mumbai.
The NTC has proposed to allocate just a small portion of these vast tracts for requisite open spaces, and even this is restricted to a few, less visible mill compounds in Lalbaug, Byculla and Naigaum.
However, at the behest of a BMC committee recently set up to scrutinise mill-land sale proposals, architects have come up with a counter proposal which seeks to get a bigger share for open spaces by compensating the NTC with additional development rights.
The proposal also seeks to distribute the open space share over many more areas. For instance, because of its waterfront location, the NTC wishes to sell off India United Mill No. 6 at Cadell Road for maximum profits. But architects have suggested that 50 per cent should be reserved as a green area opening onto the sea.
The negotiations with the NTC began a few weeks ago after the BMC committee, comprising civic and government officials as well as architects, discovered that the city would be getting less mill land than expected.
According to the state textile policy, sick or closed mills are permitted to be redeveloped or sold if land is carved up into three parts,with two- thirds going to public housing and open spaces.
However, the NTC''s proposal takes advantage of a loophole that says the tripartite division can be applied just to the open mill lands (areas with no buildings or structures) which is a small fraction of the total area. Under the NTC proposal, the BMC''s share of land fell from 24 hectares to 9 hectares and the state housing board''s share dropped from 24 hectares to 10 hectares.
However, in their counter proposal, architects, including Charles Correa, suggest that the NTC should give up the additional 15 hectares for open spaces and in return, get extra floor space index (FSI), which is the ratio of building height to plot area. The NTC would thus get an FSI of 2.61 on its share of land, compared to the prevailing FSI of 1.33, allowing it to build taller structures on a smaller plot.
More ambitiously, architects envision that if the existing municipal gardens were factored in, and private mills were also to fall in with the idea, they could plan a green corridor from Dadar to Mahalaxmi, with precincts centering around specific localities or transport hubs.
"Several mills are next to the railway stations, and creating open spaces there would relieve the congestion considerably," said an architect.
Opening up Jam mills next to Currey Road station, for example, would give commuters an additional access route while the Kohinoor mill unit at Dadar TT could partially serve as a depot for the Asiad buses which currently clog up the main road.
But will the NTC agree to such suggestions? Committee members are hoping that the NTC realises their proposal also make good business sense. "It would benefit the NTC because land values increase with green spaces around," said an architect.
For example, the plan proposes reserving 37 per cent of the Kohinoor mills at Shivaji Park, which would give the Sena Bhavan junction a park and add cachet to the property next to it.
"Mill owners should think about what would benefit the city as whole, rather than opening up the land to the highest bidder, selling it off and sitting back," said an architect.
The India United Mill on Cadell Road was envisioned as a waterfront by the Charles Correa committee on mill land redevelopment in 1996, but this is how unplanned development could make it look.