Alibaug – Contextual study

Alibaug – Contextual study

For housing design project

Saransh Yadav
Roll no. – 82
Sem-7
 Location
• Alibag tahsil in Raigarh district of
Maharashtra state,
India. The tahsil has 50148 ha of
geographic area and has about 54.5 km
long coastline.
The Alibag-tahsil has 189 villages and two
towns with population of 221661as per
2001
census. The area extends between latitudes
18° 56’ N to 18° 29’ N and longitudes 72°
51’
E to 73° 04’E. The area is surrounded by
sea coast on its north East, North and
Southern
part. (Source: Census Book District
Raigad)
Alibag is situated at 18° 38’ 29” north
latitude and 72° 52’ 20” east longitude, on
the west coast of India around 35 km
south of Mumbai. The nearest Jetty is
Mandva from
where catamarin or ferry services are
available to Gateway of India, Mumbai.
Alibag is
the head-quarter of the Raigad district of
Maharashtra. In Alibag tahsil there are 214
villages. (Resource: Raigarh District
Gazetteer 2006)
Background Study • Alibaug is a very popular weekend
getaway holiday destination and has
earned itself the name of 'mini-Goa',
owing to the high tourist footfall all year
round.
• Alibaug is a coastal town and a  • Alibaug has numerous beaches, and all
municipal council in Raigad District of  the beaches are only a few minutes’
Maharashtra, India. It is the
headquarters of the Raigad district and drives away from each other
is south of the city of Mumbai. Alibaug
is part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region
 and is situated at a distance of about
96km from Mumbai and 143km from
Pune.
• Alibaug and its surrounding villages
are the historic hinterlands of   Road route from Mumbai to Alibaug
Bene Israeli Jews.
• Revdanda, Chaul, Nagaon, Akshi,
Varsoli, Thal, Navgaon, Kihim, and
Aawas villages were known as
"Ashtagare".
Alibaug is in close proximity to these
forts:
Murud Janjira Fort
Undheri Fort
Revdanda Fort
Khanderi Fort
 Road route from Alibaug to Pune Kolaba Fort
 Cultural
• Majority of the population speaks
Marathi language.
• It has been home to various fishing
communities.
• As tourist showed preference for
Alibaug, villagers from nearby villages
identified the potential in tourism.
Women looked at it as the golden
opportunity and thought of offering
homely food at reasonable cost.
• More and more women spotted the
probable scope for entrepreneurship
and modified their typical village
houses into holiday resorts and
eateries.
• Alibaug and it’s neighboring villages
have witnessed the development
changes due to industrialization of
the farm land and now accounts for
mixed group of people .
• There are 17 fishing villages with 3093
fishing families in Alibaug tahsil.1
Rewas 2 Bodni 3 Navkhar 4 Mandva 5
Sasvane 6 Agarsure 7 Navgaon 8 Thal
9Chalmal 10 Warsoli 11 Alibaug 12
Sakhar-Akshi 13 Nagaon 14 Chaul
15Theronde 16Rewadanda 17 Agrav.
The total population engaged in fishing
is 7732.
• (Source: Fisheries Department, Alibag
works under the Director of fisheries,
Maharashtra).
• Houses in all settlements are almost
parallel to the coast. Almost all fishing
villages are linear type of settlements.
Most of the settlement are located on
the creeks i.e. small and large sea-
water inlets.
• All fishing settlements have rice fields
 Major fishing
in the vicinity of them.
community houses
 All along the coast and
with rice fields on the
side of the land
Geography & Climate
• The tahsil has 50148 ha of geographic
area and has about 54.5 km long
coastline.
The area extends between latitudes 18° 56’
N to 18° 29’ N and longitudes 72° 51’ E to
73° 04’E. The area is surrounded by sea
coast on its north East, North and
Southern part

• The climate is the typical coastal

climate with its own characteristics like
heavy downpour during the monsoon,
high humidity throughout the year and
damp weather during the hot months.
• The climatic changes are responsible for
the division of the year into roughly four
seasons:
• ventilation is necessary .
Rains ;June to early October
• Damp & hot weather :Late October and
November
• Cold weather :December to March Dry
 Comparative temperature , relative humidity  Rainfall and temperature graph
and mean wind speed analysis of the year
Inferences :
For tropical coastal climate solar passive techniques
used in these vernacular
maximum cross
residential buildings in
coastal region provides
comfortable thermal indoor
Buildings should be environment irrespective of
aligned to incorporate the outdoor 
( south west winds ) for climatic conditions.

• hot weather : April and May. natural ventilation.

 inferences:
Infrastructure • A gated community
development keeping in
• The past decade infrastructure in mind second
Alibaug has seen a rapid growth homebuyers, not only
for high net worth
• Major companies are planning to set individuals, but also
up industries in the area( chemical ,
young executives and
steel ),due to which the there has
been an increased demand in the professionals, is the
infrastructure facilities ( such as target segment.
housing , land availability ,road • Three factors that make
network and probable railway Alibaug ripe for realty
connections ). play are, huge amount
of land availability,
• In the urbanizable zone the major
development has occur , which has reasonable land prices
the government offices , banks , and infrastructure.
schools , restaurants , hospitals and • Once the affordable
housing colonies. luxury segment with
high mid-income
• But higher educational institutions
Upcoming infrastructure projects include : category comes into
are missing.
• Virar- Alibaug multi-modal corridor Alibaug, the
• Luxury villas ( Hiranandani , Mahindra life demography of the
spaces ) place, currently stuck
• Integrated townships between very low-
• Industries ( steel and pharma ) income group and the
• Proximity to Navi Mumbai’s SEZ ultra-rich, will change.
Proposed land
use plan :of
Alibaug taluka
 Linkages
• Mandwa Port , is
connected to alibaug via
alibaug - revas road (18
km. ,35 mins.)to the
heart of the city.
• Alibaug is connected to
the Pen and other
eastern cities via Alibaug
Pen road(30 km., 1 hour
travel time).
• The roro jetty and ferry
systems connect
Mumbai to Mandwa
port.
• It takes around 4 hours
via road from Mumbai to
Alibaug .

• Upcoming : Virar-
Alibaug multi-modal
corridor.
Demographic data

Inferences:
• With the upcoming growth
of infrastructure , the main
worker category will
witness an increase , which
would demand for various
housing options amongst
different income groups.
• A balance of affordable
and luxury housing can
accommodate different
group of people .
• A portion of the project can
be dedicated to rental
housing with amenities
designed as per the target
user.
Housing typologies

• Currently major housing

includes of low rise houses
usually g+1 or G floor
structures , with pitched roof.
• Rental houses for tourists
• RCF township , (RCF has it’s
chemical industry in Thal , Mahindra life spaces
Alibaug )
• Luxury villas
• Housing projects which are
not more than G+4 floors
• Fishermen community houses Fishermen community houses
Majorly along the coastal region and
• In all fishing settlements
proportion of non engineered along the creek
houses is more than semi-
engineered and engineered
houses. The roads inside the
settlements are narrow.

RCF colony
Comprises of junior college , school
Sports arena, hospital
 Geology

• Physiograhically, the region is a

distinct strip of low land,
interspersed by hills, rounded hills,
(northern side of the Kundalika
River, almost in central part of the
Raigarh district).
• There is a mud and sand (stone)
deposition in west part of the
Alibaug tahsil near the coast line
of Arabian Sea.
• Two main rivers are flowing in the
Alibag tahsil named Kundalika and
Amba.
• The drainage pattern of the area is
centrifugal (radial from the hill tops
in all direction and flow down slope
of the hill flanks. The Kundalika and
Amba both rivers are perennial and
all other streams of the area are
seasonal.

 Base map
 Geology
• Contour map shows that the range
variation is from 0 m. to 320 m.
above the mean sea level.
• In general contours are very
sparse. This indicates that most of
the area is occupied by the plain.
• Major portion is covered with
Deccan Trap of Cretaceous
Paleocene age. The basalts are
dark black to ashy gray in colour.
The lava flows are of extensive
horizontal layers.

 Contour map  Land - use map

 Soil type

• The lower member is a

conglomerate followed by
mudstone while the upper
portion consists of shell-
limestone. The mudstone Gnetum ula brongn
is exposed at Nagaon and Endemic
Revadanda. The shelly Found in : Mahan forest
limestone (locally called
Karal) is extensively
developed along the
coastal tract.
• The shell-limestone is a
porous rock and thus forms
a good aquifer. The
coconut and betelnut
plantations, therefore,
grow luxuriantly on these
rocks. The sequence is
overlain by the recent
beach sands.
Hyphaene dichotoma
Endemic
Found in :Nagaon beach

Economics
• Land in mandwa costs about
650 /sq.ft.
• Apartment rates is around 5300
rs./sq.ft. , can fluctuate depending
on the location
(Source : 99 acres.com)
Amenities which go well with the
holiday destination can lure more
number of buyers.
• With it’s proximity to Navi
Mumbai SEZ , increase in resident
growth can be seen
• Reliance and ONGC have
manufacturing units in Nagaon
village.
• Salt manufacturing small scale
units are also present.
• The residents majorly earn from
tourism and agriculture .
• Industries are located in the Thal
region of Alibaug
• With the ferry service connection
and upcoming industrial set ups
around , alibaug may see a rise in
Experts believe once the affordable luxury segment with high medium income group residents,
mid-income category comes into Alibaug, the demography of who can be permanent residents
the place, currently stuck between very low-income group and or may own the property as their
the ultra-rich, will change. second home .
Inference
s
• solar passive techniques used in these vernacular residential buildings in
coastal region provides comfortable thermal indoor environment irrespective of
the outdoor climatic conditions.
• Soil type along the coast and area adjacent to it has large deposits of salinity in
them , rice cultivation and crops suited to the type can be grown as a part of
community farming , which can act as a mixed use space ( an amenity ) which
has regional context associated to it .
• A balance of affordable and luxury housing can accommodate different group
of people .
• A portion of the project can be dedicated to rental housing with amenities
designed as per the target user.
• Rainwater harvesting can hold on a large amount of rainwater ( due to heavy
rainfall ) .
• Amenities which go well with the holiday destination can lure more number of
buyers.
• Socio cultural zone can be designed which can host gatherings and also act as a
solitude space when no such gatherings a taking place .