Sub: Built environment and land use planning

By: Riddhi Vakharia (PP0008714)

Date: 23rd February 2015

Article review
Of

Mumbai FAR/FSI conundrum

The perfect storm: the four factors restricting the construction of new floor space in Mumbai
By: Alain Bertaud
And

Life between buildings

The use and abuse of FSI
By: Shirish Patel
Introduction
Mumbai is the financial powerhouse of India and also a major commercial hub yet it has a huge
housing deficit. In the article Mumbai FAR/FSI conundrum: The perfect storm: the four factors
restricting the construction of new floor space in Mumbai Alain Bertaud has tried to detail out
the reasons for restricted floor space in city of Mumbai and how to overcome them. This has
been well explained through examples of cities around the world with characteristics same as
Mumbai.
Contrary to this in the article Life between buildings: The use and abuse of FSI author Shirish
Patel has a differing view on the same issue. He says that simply comparing the FSI of Indian
cities and especially Mumbai to world cities is deceptive. He addresses the issue of housing
deficit by proposing a new metric for crowding i.e. no. of persons per hector for a particular
urban use. And suggests how by planning and re-planning of urban areas along with necessary
policy changes that need to be made for Mumbai.
Summary
This section contains summary of the articles mentioned above. In the first section of the article
Mumbai FAR/FSI conundrum: The perfect storm: the four factors restricting the construction of
new floor space in Mumbai the author explains how in-spite of the fact that Mumbai is the
commercial capital of India and has a huge share in the economic development of the country the
figures for people in slums and housing deficit is shocking. Moreover the consumption of

residential floor space per person is lowest in the world. He holds the Malthusian urban policy
responsible for the same as it is very reluctant in considering increasing population as a success
rather than failure and designing policies for the same.
Author further explores as to what are the exceptional factors in Mumbai which would explain
why a comparative affluence, a booming economy, and a well-qualified workforce do not
translate also into decent housing conditions? And he has delineated this as below:
a. An exceptional topography that reduces the amount of developable land.
b. A draconian and ill-conceived land use policy restricting the area of floor space which
can be built on the little land available.
c. Muddled property rights preventing households and firms from freely trading land and
floor space as a commodity.
d. A failure to develop major primary infrastructure networks, which prevent the city from
overcoming its topographical constraint. In turn, the weakness of the infrastructure
network is used to justify the restrictive land use policy.
Apart from topography he also describes how policies like rent control and land ceiling acts
hinder the development. All of the above is explained by taking data from various cities with
similar characteristics around the globe and how hey have solved their problem.
The article does not end by simply delineating the issues but the solutions for the same are also
given. He explains how the real choice is not between increasing the FSI or not increasing it,
The real choice is between increasing the FSI or relocating a large number of households out of
Mumbai. Moreover he also writes on myths and reality regarding the relation of increasing FSI
and increasing Population density. Moreover he says that we should not wait for improving the
infrastructure that can take that load of increased use but we should rather increase the FSI and
then design better infrastructure subsequently. Additionally the increase in FSI would also fund
the improvement of infrastructure to an extent.
The author concludes by saying that The current situation, consisting in an immutable low FSI
and an immutable deficient infrastructure, results in a constant squeeze of lower income
groups into less and less floor space. The only flexibility in the system rests in the expansion of
floor space in slums and in forcing the poorest people in creating new floor space on
sidewalks. It is time to radically reassess the past policy and discard the fear of change which has
paralyzed Mumbai land use until now.
While in the article Life between buildings: The use and abuse of FSI author Shirish Patel starts
of by disagreeing to the pressing opinion of World Bank and especially Alain Bertaud when
comparison of FSI across cities is unsuitable as the occupants per floor area should be
considered. Moreover this comparison cannot be done cities are at different levels of economic
development, and are inhabited by individuals occupying, on average, different extents of floor
space. Living is simply more crowded in some parts of the world, and less crowded in others.

Additionally, he suggests what must be factored into any debate on FSI is street crowding. he
introduces this as a new and important index to give us an idea of how many occupants live
within a given street area, and consequently how crowded the streets will be. The author says
that we should not just see the figures for the FSI but also the land-uses and the crowding for the
amenities which is almost five times higher in Mumbai than in Manhattan.
Author also points out that he does not say that there should not be any change in FSI regime
rather it should be increased at new transit nodes.
Further author Shirish Patel stresses on the fact that we should not only look at FSI
independently for a city like Mumbai just like the World Bank suggests but we should also take
into account the relation of FSI with other factors such as Street crowding, Indoor crowding, and
Plot factor all of these being very important factors in cities of India. Moreover the policy like
Rent Act should be upgraded n a fashion such that the rent then gradually reaches to market rate
to reduce the housing deficit. He also writes about concepts of inclusionary housing and free
housing.
The author concludes by noting that apart from above mentioned points there is also another
important change the city needs, and that is in regard to opening up more land for the citys
growth. Mumbai needs the Trans-Harbour Link urgently, to give it access to more land area on
the mainland. Schemes like the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (or for that matter the Western Coastal
Road) are useless in this regard, because they provide the city with no new land. There can be no
doubt that for the foreseeable future Mumbai will continue to grow. So if we want a less
congested and better performing city we have no option but to add more land to it, well
connected by public transport.
Conclusion
This critical review has evaluated the articles mentioned above, both having contrasting opinion
on the FSI regime for the city of Mumbai and whether or not it should be compared across cities
and how much should I be. In the former article Alain Bertaud compares it to world cities and
suggests some basic changes in policies. Varyingly in the next article Shirish Patel points out that
of Indian cities have their own character and we should decide accordingly. But both the authors
favor the change in policies like Rent Act which are hindering the growth of housing market. I
strongly agree to author Shirish Patel as he has taken into account the Indian Scenario while
looking at the Policies of Mumbai making it more relevant.