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Lakshmi Raj: Shaping spaces in post industrial Mumbai: Urban regimes,

planning instruments and splintering communities

Nainan, N.K.B.

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Nainan, N. K. B. (2012). Lakshmi Raj: Shaping spaces in post industrial Mumbai: Urban
regimes, planning instruments and splintering communities. [Thesis, externally prepared,
Universiteit van Amsterdam].

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 Lakshmi Raj
SHAPING SPACES IN POST INDUSTRIAL
MUMBAI:
URBAN REGIMES, PLANNING INSTRUMENTS
AND SPLINTERING COMMUNITIES

By

Navtej K. B. Nainan
Universiteit van Amsterdam
2012
ii
 Lakshmi Raj
SHAPING SPACES IN POST INDUSTRIAL MUMBAI:
URBAN REGIMES, PLANNING INSTRUMENTS AND
SPLINTERING COMMUNITIES

ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT

ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor

aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam
op gezag van de Rector Magnificus
Prof. Dr. D.C. van den Boom
ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde
commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel
op 1 Juni, 2012 te 10:00 uur

door

Navtej Khaur Bhutani Nainan

geboren te New Delhi, India

iii
Promotiecommissie:
Promotor(es): prof. dr. I.S.A. Baud
prof. dr. A. Bhide

Overige leden: prof. dr. M.A.F. Rutten

dr. J. de Wit
prof. dr. G.A. de Bruijne (Emeritus)
dr. L. Kennedy
prof. dr. J.B.F. Nijman

Faculteit der Maatschappij- en Gedragswetenschappen

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables and Figures vii
List of Abbreviations and Hindi Words ix
List of Abbreviations ix
List of Hindi words x
Chapter 1: Raising the Issues 1
1.1 The City and its Development Plan 3
1.2 Shifts Towards New Town Planning Instruments –TDR and AR 6
1.3 Outcomes for the City and its Citizens? 10
Chapter 2: Literature Review: Changes in Urban Land Regimes - Approaches, Concepts and
Outcomes 13
2.1 Approaches to Studying Urban Land Regimes 13
2.2 Concepts 14
2.3 Analytical Frameworks for Studying Collective Decision-Making 22
2.4 Outcome and Impact of Urban Land Regimes 27
Chapter 3: Research Methodology 35
3.1 Research Paradigm 35
3.2 Outlining Specific Research Questions 36
3.3 Data Sources and Tools 40
3.4 Sample Choices, Methodology and Analytical Tools 42
3.5 Rationale for Choosing Areas for In-Depth Case Studies 46
3.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study 48
Chapter 4: Designing Bombay: an Overview 49
4.1 Political and Economic History 49
4.2. City Designs 53
4.3 Land Ownership and Tenure 57
4.4 Conclusion 63
Chapter 5: Government and Governance of Urban Development in Mumbai 65
5.1 The Role of the Government of India in Urban Development 65
5.2 The Role of the Government of Maharashtra in Urban Development 68
5.3 The Role of MCGM in Urban Development 71
5.4 MCGM and State Government Relations 78
5.5 Conclusions 79
Chapter 6: MRTPs and the Consensus needed for a New Development Plan 81
6.1 The Draft Development Plan 82
6.2 Actors’ Reactions to the Draft Development Plan 83

v
 6.3 The Bottom-Up Process of Identifying Actors 91
6.4 The Actors’ Interests and Constraints 99
6.5 Conclusions 110
Chapter 7: Coalitions, Strategies and Arenas 113
7.1 The Pro-Growth Coalition 113
7.2 The ‘No-Growth’ Coalition 120
7.3 Policy Brokers and their Role 127
7.4 Findings and Conclusions 129
Chapter 8: Direct and Indirect Outputs of the New Planning Instruments 131
8.1 New Development Control Rules and Liberalization of Land Regulations 131
8.2 Direct Policy Outputs of the New Planning Instruments 138
8.3 Comparative Analysis of NPIs 143
8.4 Impact on Land Markets 147
8.5 Impact on Redeveloped Communities 154
8.6 The Changing Role of Actors in Producing Amenities 157
8.7 Project Impact on Communities 161
8.8 Conclusions 163
Chapter 9: Impact of NPIs on Resettled and Redeveloped Communities 165
9.1 Spatial Impact of Market Instuments on Communities 165
9.2 Impacts on Resettled Households of the MUTP Cluster 171
9.3 Impacts on Households of the In-Situ Redevelopment Project of Roma Banjara Cluster 176
9.4 Impact on Livelihoods 179
9.5 Comparison amongst Subgroups of Roma Banjara and MUTP clusters 181
9.6 Findings and Conclusions 183
Chapter 10: Whose Regime is it Anyway? 185
10.1 Emergence of a New Urban regime in Mumbai 185
10.2. Heterogeneous Actors and Interests 188
10.3 Actor’s Resources and Strategies 191
10.3 Key Features of the New Regime and its Regulatory Framework 193
10.4 Policy Outcomes of New Regulations and Planning Instruments on Public Amenities and
Urban Development 196
10.5 New Regulations and Unequal Impacts on Communities and Households 198
10.6 Reflections on the Conceptual Framework 199
10.7 Recommendations for Practice 203
Appendix: Summary thesis 207
Bibliography 213

vi
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

List of Tables

Table 2.1: A mode of coordination 16

Table 2.2: Four basic types of goods 31
Table 3.1: Concepts and indicators for assessing improvement in living condition 40
Table 3.2: Number and types of sites surveyed 41
Table 3.3: Specific research questions and data sources 42
Table 3.4: TDR plots acquired from 1997- 2005 and their use 45
Table 3.5: Chart showing TDRs generated in all wards of Mumbai 46
Table 3.6: Number of household interviews in the case study area 47
Table 4.1: Land ownership in Mumbai in 1981 in acres 57
Table 4.2: Land ownership of slums in Mumbai, 2001 63
Table 5.1: Current status of plots acquired under the LAA (1978-1999) 67
Table 5.2: Status of ULCRA land in Mumbai 68
Table 5.3: List of amenities for which land plots were acquired between 1978 and 1990 using the Land
Acquisition Act 72
Table 5.4: Public amenity norms 74
Table 6.1: De-reservation applicants at the municipal level 86
Table 6.2: De-reservation applicants and applications by the state government 88
Table 6.3: Zoning and shifts in land value in M Ward 92
Table 6.4: Landowners and change in zoning in M Ward 92
Table 6.5: Actors according to sector 99
Table 8.1: Acquired TDR plots acquired and their use (1997-2005) 138
Table 8.2: Public amenity reservations plots realized via the three NPIs 138
Table 8.3: Size of survey sample 139
Table 8.4: Functional public amenity on the plot using a TDR instrument 140
Table 8.5: Fees required for use of the amenity on plots developed under TDR instrument 140
Table 8.6: Use of amenity on plots developed through TDR instrument according to class 140
Table 8.7: Capacity of amenity used by type 141
Table 8.8: Type of amenity constructed on plot through AR instruments 141
Table 8.9: Land acquisition of amenity by the MCGM through AR instruments 142
Table 8.10: Fees for using amenity on plots built under AR instruments 142
Table 8.11: Percentage of total plot area occupied by amenity on In-situ plots 143
Table 8.12: Current owner of the amenity structure on In-situ plots 143
Table 8.13: Percent of projects completed 143
Table 8.14: Ownership of amenity 144
Table 8.15: Performance of instruments 146
Table 8.16: Variations in TDR produced public amenities according to ward 149
Table 8.17: TDR beneficiaries of open space amenities 158
Table 8.18: Beneficiaries of SRA/PAP TDR 158
Table 8.19: TDR beneficiaries for open space and SRA/PAP housing amenities 159
Table 9.1: PAP townships in M Ward 166
Table 9.2: Monthly income of households in sub-communities of MUTP 171
Table 9.3: Percentage of households having proofs of residence in resettlement 172

vii
Table 9.4: Housing conditions of sub-communities of the MUTP Project (in percentage of households)
173
Table 9.5: Comparison of schooling and health facilities between their earlier site and current site (in
percentages) 175
Table 9.6: Type of housing and access to public amenities (in percentages) 175
Table 9.7: Percent of households living in different types of housing 177
Table 9.8: Perceived project benefits by households in the rehabilitation building of the Roma Banjara
Housing Co-operative 178
Table 9.9: Impact of relocation on livelihoods resulting from the MUTP Project 180
Table 9.10: Connections of locality to main road or railway station (in percent) 181
Table 9.11: Comparative impact indicators for community subgroups 182
Table 10.1: Comparing strategies and arenas used by the two coalitions 191
Table 10.2: Comparing the traditional and liberal urban regime 195

List of Figures

Figure 1.1: Map detailing land use of Greater Bombay 5

Figure 1.2: General Conceptual Framework 11
Figure 2.1: Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) 22
Figure 2.2: Elements of key variables in the ACF 24
Figure 3.1 Conceptual framework of advocacy coalitions 38
Figure 3.2: Selection Process of sample size and case study 43
Figure 3.3: Administrative Ward Map of Mumbai 44
Figure 3.4: Map of M/East Ward 45
Figure 4.1: Map of Bombay late nineteenth century from Captain Thomas Dickinson’s survey 54
Figure 4.2: Land ownership in Mumbai by different actors 57
Figure 4.3: Residential prices per square metre in Mumbai Corporation Area, according to ward 59
Figure 5.1: Planning flow chart as per the Town Planning Act of 1966 77
Figure 6.1: Stages and time frame for formulating the revised Development Plan for Bombay (1991-
2011) 82
Figure 6.2: The Fulanchiwadi Network (1970s-80s) 95
Figure 6.3: The Fulanchiwadi network period (1981-1991) 97
Figure 6.4: Development Plan showing Fulanchiwadi with amenity reservations 98
Figure 7.1: Members and network of the pro-growth coalition 115
Figure 7.2: Snowballing of pro-growth coalition 120
Figure 7.3: Members and Network of the No-Growth Coalition 126
Figure 7.0.4: Co-option of different actors into the No-Growth Coalition 128
Figure 8.1: New Planning Instruments 132
Figure 8.2: Conversion of privately owned land for public amenities through Land Acquisition Act 133
Figure 8.3: Conversion of privately owned land for public amenities through TDR 134
Figure 8.4: Three types of TDR generated in Mumbai (1993-2003) 135
Figure 8.5: Existing, proposed and TDR generated open spaces in Mumbai 147
Figure 8.6: Index of multiple deprivations in Mumbai and percentage of slum inhabitants 150
Figure 8.7: Distribution of the three types of TDR generated in Mumbai 152
Figure 8.0.8: Consumption location of M-ward TDR 153
Figure 8.9: Development Plan map of Latif Villa Compound 156
Figure 9.1: Lallu Bhai Compound 168
Figure 9.2: Transit Camps 168

viii
Figure 9.3: Maharashtra Nagar 169
Figure 9.4: Women at the entrance of a Roma Banjara Tandav Housing Co-operative Building 169
Figure 9.5: Development Plan map of Roma Banjara community 170
Figure 9.6: A Balwadi run by a NGO in Roma Banjara Cluster 170
Figure 10.1: A new framework for future research 199

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND HINDI WORDS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1BHK One Bedroom, Hall, Kitchen

ABIM Association of Building Industry of Maharashtra
ACF Advocacy Coalition Framework
AFAR Additional Floor Area Ratio
AR Accommodation Reservation
BARC Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
BDPAC Bombay Development Plan Advisory Committee
BEAG Bombay Environment Action Group
BJP Bharatiya Janata Party
BMC Bombay Municipal Corporation
BPO Business Process Outsourcing
BSP Bahujan Samaj Party
CA Competent Authority
CBO Community Based Organization
CCC Concerned Citizens’ Commission
CIDCO City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd
CREDAI Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India
CRZ Coastal Regulation Zones
DCR Development Control Regulations
DC Development Control
DP Development Plan
DRC Development Rights Certificate
DPD Development Plan Department
GOI Government of India
FICCI Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FSI Floor Space Index
HIG High Income Group
IAS Indian Administrative Service
IFHP International Federation of Housing and Planning
JNNURM Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
LAA Land Acquisition Act
LIG Lower Income Group
LULU Locally Undesirable Land Uses
MBI Market Based Instruments
MHADA Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority
MCGM Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai
MCHI Maharashtra Chambers of Housing and Industry
MIG Middle Income Group
MLA Members of the Legislative Assembly
MP Member(s) of Parliament
MMRDA Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority

ix
MRTP Act Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act
MUIP Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project
MUTP Mumbai Urban Transport Project
MNS Maharashtra Navnirman Sena
NA Non Agricultural
NCP National Congress Party,
NDZ No Development Zone
NIMBY Not In My Back Yard
NGO Non-Governmental organization
NOC No Objection Certificate
NPI New Planning Instruments
NSDF National Slum Dwellers Federation
NSSO National Sample Survey Organization
NVSS Nivara Haq Suraksha Samiti
OCG Organized Crime Groups
PAH Project Affected Housing
PAP Project Affected People
PEATA Practicing Engineers Architects and Town Planners Association
PIL Public Interest Litigation
RCF Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizer
RPI Republican Party of India
RSDF Railway Slum Dwellers Federation
RR Resettlement and Rehabilitation
RTI Right To Information Act
SBC Save Bombay Committee
SEZ Special Economic Zone
SJRHAY Sarva Jyanti Rozgar Hami Yojna
SLAO Special Land Acquisition Officer
SPA School of Planning and Architecture
SPARC Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centre
SPPL Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp
SRA Slum Redevelopment Authority
TDR Transfer of Development Rights
TISS Tata Institute of Social Science
TPI Traditional Planning Instruments
TPS Town Planning Schemes
WHO World Health Organization
ULCRA Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act
ULDD Urban Land Development Department

LIST OF HINDI WORDS

Anganwadi/Balwadi Kindergarten/Nursery
Shakha Branch
Shakha Pramukh Branch Leader
Hafta Protection money
Tadipaar A common offender who is ordered to live outside of city limits
Gunda Goon (gangster)
Mangalsutra A piece of jewelry symbolizing marriage

x
CHAPTER 1: RAISING THE ISSUES

INTRODUCTION

Although only around a quarter of India’s total population lived in urban areas in 2011, the absolute
size of the urban population is already large enough to draw attention – almost 287 million people.
Large differences are found among urban areas as well, with mega-cities (cities with 10 million people
and more) drawing attention because of their importance as major contributors to the national
economy. This pattern of economic shift towards large cities fits into the international debates on
urban areas as drivers of economic growth (World Bank 1999; Sankhe et al. 2010).

Mumbai is one such city, and its development holds value not only for its 12 million and more
residents but is also important for the entire country. The city once known for its textile mills is now
the financial and commercial capital of the country, housing some of the largest oil, trade, finance
companies along with a booming Hindi film industry. Following economic liberalization in the early
1990’s the city is said to have become part of the global economy (Pacione 2006; Castells 1996).

Given its importance in terms of urban development and land development more specifically, Mumbai
has also been the scene of contentions and conflicts, where power struggles between various classes
are fought. Decisions on what use urban land should be put to, how it should be developed and who
should be the decision-makers are matters of politics, which often result in conflicts. These conflicts
are exacerbated as the city is very small in area size, part of it on a peninsula, with half its population
living in slums, and a large section of the population employed in the informal sector. Disparities in
income, amenities, housing and services are very glaring here.

In this study the issue is taken up of how the state intervenes in urban development and what the
effects are on different sections of the urban population. The study covers the strategic period when
major shifts in the state’s intervention in urban development occurred, via the process by which
Mumbai’s revised Development plan of 1991 emerged. The introduction of market mechanisms to
deal with problems of getting private land into the public domain for developing collective public
amenities. It specifically looks at the question to what extent and whether engaging non-state actors in
urban development could solve the problems of delivering amenities to all residents of Mumbai. It fits
into discussions on state interventions in urban land management policies, as well as discussions on
new forms of urban governance in which the state interacts with non-state actors in deciding the
direction of urban development (Baud and de Wit 2008).

Urban interventions in India

One of the main instruments of land policy is urban and regional planning. In its (urban or regional)
Development Plans the state can provide strong or weak directives on how land use should be
structured. A direct relationship is said to exist between the extent to which a country’s state wants to
control land policy and the degree of urban planning (Virtanen and van ‘t Verlaat 1998).

Realizing urban development plans necessitates getting land under direct control of the state. Public
amenities such as schools, hospitals, parks, all need a valuable ingredient – land. Acquisition of land
has been one of the means of getting privately owned land under public ownership and use. Under the
Town Planning Act, local and state governments have to provide public amenities to urban dwellers.
For this, three broad sets of tools have been identified as being used by governments – planning tools,
land development tools and legislative and fiscal tools. Urban development is carried out using a
combination of these tools where the government plays both a regulatory as well as a developer-
provider role for public amenities and housing.

The modern Indian State has used various instruments to realize its land policy goals, through direct
intervention in land development either by providing infrastructure or through land acquisition for
public purposes. Another instrument has been the regulation of land use - by zoning, building control
rules and regulations, often executed by local government. A third set of instruments concerns fiscal
measures such as taxation and stamp duty. As a provider, the state’s strategy has been to acquire
private lands for public use, thereby establishing its eminent domain. The legal instrument available to
the Government of India has been the Land Acquisition Act enacted by the former British colonizers.
The national government in India has also played a regulatory role by controlling the size of land
holdings, house rents and land use through a number of regulations, such as the Urban Land Ceiling
Act, The Rent Control Act and the Regulations governing town planning and development.

Analysts recognize land regulations to be necessary for well-functioning markets but when poorly
designed they are known to be a serious drag on economic development. Land analysts believe that
regulations in India are often poorly conceived and the central, state and municipal regulations
contribute to an artificial urban land shortage (Sridhar 2010). As a result, amongst other reasons, urban
land prices are abnormally high in relation to India’s average household income, and households
consume less floor space than they could afford if the regulatory environment were reformed. Some
of these regulations are also responsible for corruption, and it has been said that the regulatory
environment in India has contributed to a “criminalization” of real estate (Bertaud 2002; Sridharan
2003).

The interventionist role of government has come under much criticism by World Bank officials and
the private sector. Their view has been that the intervention of the state in the housing market has
failed, because, even though well-meaning, it has frozen land supply in the formal markets. This has
resulted in large sections of the city population being forced to seek housing in slums or informal
markets. These neighborhoods are termed as ‘blighted or illegal’ settlements and function outside the
planning and regulatory framework of the city with poor or no access to amenities. People living in
these informal communities here also have fewer rights to such amenities, depending on the degree of
informality. Thus the poor have not benefited from strict planning regulation (Payne 2001).

Two types of recommendations emerged based on the causes identified. One group of analysts
advocated that the state should reduce its role in the real estate sector and move towards being a
facilitator or enabler. Within this line of argument, it was also recommended that the state enable
emergence of property markets by changing rules and setting up new institutions (World Bank 2005).
Another group of analysts critiqued the strict regulations governing urban planning, such as restricted
Floor Space Index (FSI) and zoning, and pointed out that often policies have been created to solve
problems created by earlier policies (Bertaud 2005). Some analysts have also pointed out that the
regulations regarding housing settlements and urban planning, such as size of roads and acceptable
size of housing plots are ridiculously strict in India. (Payne 2001). Norms borrowed from high-income
countries are a misfit in developing countries given their pace of growth and populations. NGOs (like
SPARC) support this view and want a lowering of rules and regulations governing urban settlements
so that a large section of informal settlements can become part of the formal housing market (Payne
2001).

India’s shift from a mixed to a more liberalized economic system, which began in 1991, is also
reflected in the government’s urban land policy (Kundu and Mahadevia 2002; Bhide, Shahajahan, and
Shinde 2003). Nationally, there appears to be a shift in the national state’s strategies over time to
reduce direct interventions in urban land development. India’s Fifth Five-Year Plan marked the
turning point of the ideological stance held by the state on land. Land was now perceived by the state
as a “resource” and income-generating tool. This was in complete contrast to the earlier socialist ideas
of preventing private concentration of land ownership.

In Maharashtra State, one of the lessons learned from the Navi Mumbai experience was that if
compensation to private landowners is made attractive, large areas of land can be acquired (Shaw
2004). There appears to be a willingness to experiment with new modes of compensation for the
private sector in urban areas (Shaw 2004). Further, use of fiscal measures - taxation, stamp duty – as a
means of controlling land policy seems to have decreased (Karnik 2002). In Mumbai, at the local

2
government level, there was a move towards using innovative measures such as the New Planning
Instruments, for example the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and Accommodation
Reservation (AR) as modes of compensation to private landowners whose lands had been reserved for
public amenities. New Planning Instruments require a closer working relationship with different non-
state actors.

This shift towards engaging with non-state actors (i.e. private and civil society groups) in urban
governance has been looked upon by academics with suspicion. Several authors have termed this a
move towards the emergence of neo-liberal states (Harvey 2000; Guha 2008). Swyngedouw,
critiquing this shift has said, “the innovative governance arrangements… have resulted in the
emergence of new regimes of (urban) governance with a particular emphasis on changing political
citizenship rights and entitlement on the one hand and their democratic credentials on the other hand”
(Swyngedouw 2005).

Does the reduction in state control and in the urban development sector stimulate activity in the urban
sector? The question whether the new regime using market instruments is able to perform better than
the state control regime requires an assessment. Are market instruments attractive compensation
packages for private landowners? How are the basic needs of squatter settlements satisfied? Do the
New Planning Instruments bring about more equality in access to basic amenities in the city and most
important of all are they able to facilitate implementation of the revised development plan? Using
Mumbai as a case in point, this study examines the shift in public land policy and its impact on the
urban poor.

1.1 THE CITY AND ITS DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Mumbai 1 has grown rapidly in terms of population as well as economic growth 2. What were once
seven coconut palm fringed islands with paddy fields and fishing villages, the city is now one of the
‘megacities’ of India, with more than 12 million people (12,47,8447 according to the Census of India,
2011). The population of Mumbai grew rapidly from the 1950’s and reached 8,227,382 people in
1981. Economic growth has attracted migrants to Mumbai, and it continues to grow, both from
children born in the city as well as from migration from across India. Rapid growth has led to self-help
housing from the 1980’s. Between 1976 and 2001, the slum population increased from 39% to 48% of
Mumbai’s total population. Estimates are that 35 sq km of Mumbai is now covered with slums,
housing almost 50% of the city’s population spread over some 2500 settlements (MCGM 2007).

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay (MCGB) 3 developed its first Development Plan for the
city in 1964. This Development Plan (DP) drew inspiration from the Maharashtra Regional and Town
Planning (MRTP) Act 4 and relied upon a classical planning approach, reserving a total 1876 plots of
land with an approximate area of 1142 hectares or 11,420,000 sq meters for various social and civic
amenities/facilities (MCGB, 1984). At 1964 prices, the cost of implementing the DP was estimated at
around Rs. 700 crores (or 10,769,230 Euros). The MCGM report reveals that till 1978 only 20% of the
plan was implemented and only 38% of the estimated cost actually spent (MCGB 1984).
1
Till 1995, Mumbai was known as Bombay and was renamed by Maharashtra state’s ruling Shiv Sena (SS)-Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) Hindu nationalist alliance.
2
A recent article by Kundu in EPW suggests however that the rate of growth among the metropolitan cities has slowed down
in the last decade A. Kundu, "Politics and Economics of Urban Growth," Economic and Political Weekly 46, no. 20 (2011),
10-12..
3
The Bombay Municipal Corporation Act was introduced by the British Government in 1888. The Municipal Corporation of
Greater Bombay (MCGB) was renamed the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) after the name change of
the city.
4
Town planning in urban Maharashtra is carried out in line with the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act under
which the planning authority carries out a survey of the land based on existing land-use maps and prepares a draft
Development Plan which is submitted for approval to the State Government.

3
Listing the main reasons for poor performance of the first DP, the MCGB Report of the revised
development plan of 1984 indicates that:
1. There were financial constraints as there was no in-built mechanism for raising resources for proper
implementation of the DP.
2. Due to rise in real estate prices in the subsequent years the cost of acquisition of privately owned
land and reservations became very high.
3. Due to procedural delays in acquisition the implementation suffered. The various reservation sites
were encumbered and so the acquisition procedure became very difficult. Due to financial constraints,
MCGB was unable to rehabilitate the existing occupants of the slums.
4. The mechanism of public participation was also absent.

4
Figure 1.1: Map detailing land use of Greater Bombay

Source: Development Plan 1991, taken from the state government Gazetteer.

5
In 1991, the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) drafted a Regional
plan for Mumbai outlining land policy goals set by the national government 5 . The revised DP
introduced New Town Planning Instruments (NPI) as an alternative to previously practiced planning
and land development tools. While previously cash payments were given as compensation for private
lands acquired for public amenities under the Land Acquisition and Urban Land Ceiling Act, the NPI
permitted compensation in two new forms. First, it included development rights on the land itself,
such that both the public amenity as well as the private interest could be accommodated. Second,
development rights could be transferred to another plot of land within certain norms.

As a result, a combination of four factors appears to have contributed towards developing new
planning instruments to realize the DP: 1) ‘Failure’ of earlier instruments which offered cash as
compensation to land owners; 2) The Navi Mumbai experience of land sharing was seen to be
positive; 3) The new instruments were probably considered in line with the economic liberalization
process initiated in the mid-1980’s, and 4) The MCGM had already experimented with TDR for roads
and floating FSI as compensation for land acquisition in the mid-1970’s.

1.2 SHIFTS TOWARDS NEW TOWN PLANNING INSTRUMENTS –TDR AND AR

This section details the shifts and changes in town planning instruments, which accompanied the
revised Development Plan. Sanctioned for the period between 1991 and 2013, the Revised
Development Plan for Greater Bombay was seen as an opportunity to solve the problems of the first
development plan of 1964. Planners hoped that it would ‘tackle many of the critical problems by
adopting planning measures’ (Balachandran, n.d.). The previous Plan’s key strategy to promote a
pattern of growth concentrated in one central area– in the southward direction - was replaced by poly-
centric development pattern – which encouraged more distribution of activities across the city
(Balachandran, n.d.).

Among the various policies adopted in the revised DP were: creation of commercial centers in the
Western and Eastern suburbs, shifting wholesale markets to suburbs and even outside of Mumbai, and
reducing FSI in the city area. A key aspect of the plan was that it recommended reduction of Planning
Standards for public amenities and facilities. Balachandran, planner with the MCGM, writes that, “The
Urban Development Department modified the planning standards adopted earlier to make the
Development plan more pragmatic and realistic.” (Balachandran, n.d.) Different planning standards
were adopted for the Island City, the Suburbs and extended suburbs, based on existing services and
projected population growth.

The shift in planning standards permitting higher FSI in the island city in keeping with existing FSI
usage, was more realistic than the first development plan which restricted FSI in the island city with
the objective of decongesting it. The plan also promoted more schools with more area per student in
the suburbs and market places. A total of 5258 sites were reserved having an area of approximately
3408 hectares in the entire city for public amenities in the revised DP of 1991. The amenities list
names twenty different types of amenities6 (Balachandran, n.d.). An interesting difference between the
revised DP and the first plan is that while the first DP reserved ‘plots’ (1876), the revised plan
reserved ‘sites’ (5258). Though the number of sites was higher, sites were only a subsection of the
earlier reserved plots.

5
The Mumbai Region as per the Regional Plan covers Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban Districts - the Mumbai City also
known as the Island City district ranges from Colaba in the south to Mahim and Sion in the north and the Mumbai Suburban
District ranges from Bandra to Dahisar, from Kurla (Chuna Bhatti) to Mulund and from Kurla and upto Trombay Creek.
The Mumbai region also covers part of Thane District comprising Thane, Kalyan, Bhiwandi and Ulhanagar tehsils; and part
of Vasai tehsil and part of Raigad District comprising Uran tehsil and part of Panvel, Karjat, Khalapur, Pen and Alibag tehsils.
6
Amenities include : Park, Recreation Grounds, Gardens, Playgrounds, Swimming Pool, Cemetery, Parking Lot, Municipal
Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Maternity Homes, Dispensary, Med Hosp, Library, Markets, Fire Station, Welfare
Centers, Road Depot, Transport Garages, Municipal Store, Refuse Shed

6
A key strategy of the revised DP was to find sources of funding other than government so that the
financial troubles that beset the previous Plan would not be repeated. Innovative funding methods and
policies were suggested, such as: Accommodation Reservations, Transfer of Development Rights for
land under reservation and for built-up amenities, allowing commercial/residential use of industrial
lands by insisting on space for amenities designed for additional population7. The new Development
Control (DC) regulations also incorporated higher FSI for Urban Renewal Schemes, redevelopment of
old and dilapidated buildings and rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

To implement the revised development plan, the MCGM in 1991 introduced a number of New Town
Planning Instruments, such as increased FSI which increased the permissible built-up area on a given
piece of land, Additional Floor Area Ratio (AFAR) and TDR, which compensated the land owner with
development rights in lieu of cash. AFAR and TDR instruments were applicable in a number of
situations. They were offered for the redevelopment of old, dilapidated buildings, for surrendering of
private land for community amenities such as gardens, schools and hospitals, for the redevelopment of
slum areas and for construction of housing for families displaced by infrastructure projects.

These New Planning Instruments were viewed as measures to overcome the problems of the earlier
instruments, namely Land Acquisition Act and Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA).
The NPI offered private land owners and developers marketable incentives, which could be realized
either on site through the AR instrument or transferred to higher or equal priced areas through TDR.
These new instruments were expected to satisfy the demands of the private sector and in return
overcome the backlog of civic amenities for citizens.

As we are interested in studying only those new instruments which were designed to realize public
amenities, this study shall focus on 1) Transfer of Development Rights, 2) Accommodation
Reservation and 3) In-situ development which is a sub set of the AR. Under the TDR-instrument, the
landowner hands over unencumbered land, to the MCGM and in return is allowed to use its
development potential on another piece of land, with certain restrictions of location. Accommodation
Reservation (AR) allows the owner to develop a set of reserved sites (for amenities such as retail
market, dispensary, maternity homes, shopping centre, library, post and telegraph office, police station)
on the condition that the specific built-up accommodation is handed over to the MCGM free of cost.
In return, the landowner is permitted to use the FSI of the land for private purposes, in conformity
with development control rules.

Both TDRs and ARs are NPI, based on the principle of cross-subsidy whereby the cost of the amenity
as well as cost of rehabilitation of occupiers of land (slums) is borne by the private land owner/ builder
initially, who can then realize a profit by the construction of open market sale components either on
the same site or through sale of TDR. Thus, the cost of amenities and of rehabilitation is transferred to
the high-end market buyer who pays not only for the new house built as part of the sale component but
also for public amenities and slum housing built as part of the rehabilitation package.
The NPI, therefore, engaged with the land owner/ builder as co-producers of public amenities,
whereby the land owner/builder was given the responsibility of constructing the public amenity - be it
schools, hospitals. However, a significant change was that the NPI transferred the costs of
rehabilitation of encroachments on the reserved plots to the private land owner/builder. Thus, through
the NPI, the government transferred some of its responsibilities of provision of public amenities and
management of encroachments, to the private sector.

Actors engaged in the Policy Making Process

From its very inception the revised development plan engaged various sections of society in debates
on its content and process. Within the MCGM itself two subsets of actors were keenly engaged in the
policy-making process: planners whose job description includes formulating the rules which govern

7
These will be explained in more detail later.

7
the development of the city, and the elected representatives of the people – the Councilors, Members
of the Legislative Assembly, (MLA) and the appointed state government ministers.

Land owners and builders - the private sector - directly gain or lose from the rules framed to
implement the development plan. Private sector in the real estate industry in India is largely local
(Sridharan 2003; Tiwari, Parikh, and Parikh 1999) and is often known to have varying interests
depending on their resource size and project locations. The real estate private sector that which is
dominated by small and medium size companies is said to have benefited from large contracts
awarded by government (and thus holds close ties with the government machinery). A small section of
the contractors turned builders are also said to have become landowners. Thus there appears to be an
overlap between the private land owners and builders in Mumbai.

Amongst the land-owning group there are two known subgroups: large landowners who were gifted
lands for their service to the British Crown and the medium-size owners who were agriculturalists. In
Mumbai, these lands are located towards the north suburbs of the old island city. Large land and
medium size owners who have slums on their lands are likely to benefit from redevelopment through
the NPI. Even areas without slums are likely to benefit from the NPI instruments, as these lands can
increase the building area per plot through higher AFAR. Landowners whose lands have development
plan reservations for roads, amenities or public housing are also likely to benefit from either TDR or
AFAR instruments. Thus they are likely to be one of the interested parties in pushing for liberalization
of urban land development.

Finally the residents of Mumbai are interested in seeing more public amenities delivered by the state.
The population of the city is not homogenous and is stratified along class and caste divides (Patel and
Thorner 1996). One of the historical divisions in the city exists between the residents of informal
communities - or ‘slums’ are they are called in legal language and those who live in formal tenured
housing – in high-rise condominiums or small villas. The citizens of Mumbai are organized around
their housing and class groups. The interests of these groups are likely to differ.

Putting together planning instruments, rules and policies, (it appears from the newspaper reports and
authors experience) is a very dynamic process with interventions from various actors, civil society
groups, housing rights groups, government officers, politicians, small and big land owners, builders,
large industrialists and the new service sector, as well as multilateral agencies such as the World Bank
and international development consultants. Decision-making is becoming more complex with the
entry of new actors. While some of these actors have played a historical role, others are relatively new.
One such actor is the middle class of Mumbai (Fernandes 2000; Baud and Nainan 2008). Their growth
is directly linked with economic boom of mega-cities of India.

In the 1960s and 1970s, industry was the powerhouse of Mumbai and much of this industry consisted
of cotton textile mills located in the south central part of the island city, towards the eastern side. By
the next decade, the nature of industrial activity widened to include chemicals and engineering sectors.
The growth of the services and financial sector in Mumbai from the late 1980s onwards gave birth to a
new middle class. Employment in the tertiary sector (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, Business
Services, Social and Personal Services) doubled in the time period between 1980-1998 (Pacione 2006;
Pendharkar 2003).

Over the last decade, the middle class in Mumbai has grown to be very active. They have used their
voice, organizations and have also litigated to influence policies of relocating street hawkers, tame
municipal labour unions, and joined hands with the elite to create a powerful neo-liberal lobby which
is pushing for a global Mumbai (Baud and Nainan, 2008). There appears to be an emergence of a new
kind of politics led by the middle classes and elites of the city. This new elite movement is also
demanding public amenities. However, their focus is more on open spaces, pavements, roads and
gardens and is likely to conflict with the needs and interests of the slum dwellers and industrial
workers, who have been demanding public housing, public schools and hospitals.

8
Slum dwellers living on lands earmarked for public amenities are now being wooed by the landowners
and builders who find it attractive to redevelop these lands. AR projects require consent of slum
dwellers. They are then moved into transit accommodations constructed by the builder and on
completion of the project, are allotted composite units of 225 sq feet on the site itself. Under
infrastructure projects, slum and pavement dwellers are termed Project Affected Persons and are
required to move into homes built by private builders in lieu of TDR (Patel and Arputham 2008). This
process appears to be fraught with protests and conflicts. While a growing number of slum dwellers
approached the Central Bureau of Investigation to complain about misdeeds of builders and officers,
middle class residents protested against sharing lands reserved for public amenities with “encroachers”
(Relief Road Residents Association PIL).

Urban policy studies by other academics have also pointed to a struggle amongst different levels of
government and their collective impact on urban developmental policy (Pethe and Lalvani 2010).
Within the government too there is a tussle between the elected representatives and officers, who
might have differing positions on the development plan. Do the slum dwellers have any role to play,
formally or informally, how do they go about influencing the policy-making process to ensure that
they gain housing security and amenities? The potential number of actors who could possibly engage
in influencing developments is very large. However, we know very little about who participates and
how. Several questions need to be answered on actors before it is possible to understand policy-
making processes. They include:
Which actors participate in the process of TDR and AR policy formulation? What are their interests
and what resources do they draw on to influence policy? What strategies and forums do they use to
influence policy decisions? What is the role of the state in all this?
These are some of the questions, which surface when we think of the actors in Mumbai.

Processes of policy making

Groups of all the above actors appear to be actively involved in the discussions and debates on the
new planning instruments. Both the TDR and AR policies started off with much protest and critique
from environmental and citizen groups in Mumbai, in the mid ’80s. Chandrashekar Prabhu, then an
MLA, raised the issue in the State Assembly of the de-reservation of 285 plots of land reserved for
public amenities by the then Chief Minister. Other organizations such as the Save Bombay Committee
(SBC) and the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG) led a subsequent series of Public Interest
Litigations (PIL). While the MRTP Act does provide opportunities for voicing opinions and invites
comments and suggestions to the draft development plan, this space appears not to satisfy the needs of
various actors, and as a result they seek other spaces, such as mass action, the courts, assembly or
lobby with officials. A growing strategy for influencing decision-making was the use of PILs by civil
society groups (Dupont and Ramanathan 2008). As a result, there appears to be a growing role of city
and national level courts in deciding the extent to which planning instruments can be applied to
various areas of the city.

Some actors appear to be forming networks based on common interests, such as federations of housing
co-operatives which have clearly promoted the interests of middle-class citizens living in
condominiums, while slum residents have organized under the leadership of NGOs and political
parties. Landowners and industry representatives have well established organizations and associations
who lobby with the government and are also known to contribute to their party funds.

There appear to be high interests at stake as different sets of actors mobilize resources and formulate
strategies to influence the new and old planning instruments. All these indicate a conflicting and
multi-scalar process of public policy making. Which of these actors will gain higher levels of
influence depends on how effectively they are able to negotiate their demands and the kind of
resources they are able to draw on into achieving their goal.

With so many actors and their differing interests in the fray the questions we are asking about how
actors intervene are the following: what are the networks and coalitions the actors build to influence

9
policies? How are conflicts and differences resolved? How are negotiations carried out? What
bargains are made? What is the role of state in the negotiation process?

1.3 OUTCOMES FOR THE CITY AND ITS CITIZENS?

The NPIs were used as means to overcome the financial limitations faced by the government in their
inability to fund land acquisition and construction of public amenities, in other words realize the
development plan of the city with larger private sector participation. Has the change in mode of
compensation to private landowners and builders in lieu of constructing public amenities attracted
many more private land owners/builders in collaborating with the government in delivering public
amities?

Newspapers and reports boast the achievement of the state in being able to create rehabilitation
housing for the large numbers of infrastructure affected shack dwellers using NP instruments, which
suggests that there is evidence to show that NPIs have contributed to creating public amenities for the
city. The question then is what types of the public amenities have been created by the new regime?
What is the quality of these amenities? And where in the city are they located, for the use of which
section of the society? Finally we are interested to know to whether the goals set by the development
plan have been achieved by the new regime (Balachandran n.d.; MUTP 2002).

One of the possible difficulties the new regime was going to face in bringing land into public amenity
use was the problem of squatter settlements on private lands. As almost fifty percent of the city is
living in squatter settlements and the previous regime did not have funds to rehouse them, the question
then would be whether NPIs were able to do what earlier regime failed to do. I am interested to know
how the NPI works with squatter settlements on private lands reserved for public amenities’. Are they
relocated on site or off site? How has NPI impacted squatter settlements? Have their housing condition
become better than what they were earlier? Further, whether market based instruments improve supply
of public amenities across classes of citizens in an equitable manner is an unanswered question.

A study of rehabilitation sites in New Delhi by Baud and others found that there was a differential set
of norms set for housing constructed for households rehabilitated under infrastructure projects than the
norms laid down for other formal housing (Baud, Sridharan, and Pfeffer 2008). All these households
were identified as poor and majority to be living below poverty line. Such differentiation
(discrimination) of public housing and amenities is known to exist in Mumbai from the colonial times.
Have the new instruments been successful in including excluded sections - slum and pavement
dwellers - as the earlier instruments did not actively provide any plans for those who would be
displaced from their homes as result of land acquisition for public amenities. Do the new planning
instruments ensure that equal sets of norms for amenities are available for all and that earlier patterns
of unequal development are evened out?

There exists a clear division amongst the actors and their interests, as the interests of the class to which
they belong and the resources and coalitions they can draw on are distinct. Research has already
indicated that there are two different models of influencing and accessing decision makers used by the
middle class and slum dwellers (Baud and Nainan, 2008). It is quite likely that this class fragmentation
will leave vulnerable sections with less power in influencing processes, as a result of which the
existing dominance of the rich and industrialist class is maintained. How are NPIs able to
accommodate the needs of three different interest groups (i.e. the squatter settlements, public
amenities to be created and landowners wanting compensation)? What kinds of trade-offs are made in
the process of satisfying needs of three different interest groups? With a very active middle class
activist community in Mumbai, it was quite predictable that breaches of norms and rules would give
rise to conflicts between interest groups at the project level. How are these conflicts over project
deliverables mitigated? What is the role of the state in this process?

One of the problems of urban development is its commodification; i.e. the use value of the product
(either house or open space) is transformed into its exchange value and in the process becomes part of

10
the capitalist market economy. This process of commodification is inherent in fungible land market
instruments such as NPI. The State has a larger role to play in ensuring that such market swings are
regulated. What is the role of the state in ensuring that NPIs are implemented towards achieving the
goal of social development and not transformed into a system of generating commodified land
products? Since NPIs function in imperfect markets, externalities are bound to occur. The state’s role
in dealing with externalities and interest groups is a new challenge demanding new capacities.
Information on land markets too needs to be readily available so that it can be used to intervene in the
market from the side of the citizens.

The key question for this study then becomes:

How did the new urban regime in Mumbai emerge in the early 1990’s? What regulatory
framework did it set up, and what are its impacts on urban space and equality?

More specifically, how has the adoption of New planning instruments (TDR and AR), which engaged
private land owners and builders as co-producers of public amenities’ to realize the revised
development plan of Mumbai, affect the decision-making process of provisioning of amenities and
what are its outcomes for urban inequalities? The figure below shows the connections raised buy these
questions in a conceptual framework.

Figure 1.2: General Conceptual Framework

ConceptualFramework
Regime formation, Successful policy
continuation or change and practices

Impact on Urban
Space

Coalition between Policies and

actors practice in land
use and housing

Nature of local party

Structure of system
local
Government
Local Electoral Geography
– Impact on slum resident
which classes dominate this. households and
Who pays for election communities
Structure of campaign finances?
local - Electoral system
capitalism

The contention of this study is that the shift from government funding to the new mode of funding
public amenities has changed the role of the land owner/ builder to a producer of public amenities.
Theoretically, the introduction of a new mode of compensation has resulted in a more decentralized
decision making process as two new actors are brought into the picture - the land owner/builder and
the occupiers of the land.

A more participatory form of local governance also appears to emerge, as formal rules require consent
of 70% of the occupiers of the redevelopment project land. However, a settlement of plot occupiers is
not a homogenous group and not all may fit into the eligibility rules. As a co-producer, the private

11
land owner definitely has an interest to ensure that a larger number of occupiers fit into the eligibility
rules, for which there are efforts to influence the rules which govern this aspect of the policy.

At the city level, the location choice of the public amenity is likely to have been influenced by existing
land markets. As existing land markets are class sensitive, it is likely that TDR will work towards
enhancing the current trend of the land markets, thereby allocating amenities lopsidedly, and requiring
ongoing changes in policy rules and bringing state government into a more frequent role of a regulator
for city land markets. Further, as public amenities are also of interest to the middle class, their
organizations and coalitions influence the rules that govern what share of the land plot is used for what
purpose. They contest the allocation of land as a resource too. Thus, various elements of decision-
making processes are influenced by different actors and factors, making such processes multi-scalar,
multi-actor and multi-arena processes.

TDR, as a fungible product, is easily transferred to fill other financial gaps of the state government,
such as source of funds for rehabilitation of people affected by large infrastructure projects. Thus, its
continuation benefits the proponents of large infrastructure projects – the big industrialists, new
service sector and multi-lateral funders of these projects. Even though this section is not a direct actor,
it is a beneficiary of such modes and contributes towards creating a larger consensus on the use of the
new modes as compensation.

In the next chapter we critically examine what other authors have to say about such changes in urban
areas and what models have they used to examine such processes. We analyze the relevance of this to
the study of changing urban regimes of Mumbai in order to make informed choices for the dimensions
and methodology utilized in this study (chapter 3).

12
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: CHANGES IN URBAN LAND REGIMES -
APPROACHES, CONCEPTS AND OUTCOMES

INTRODUCTION

In this literature review chapter I will highlight several approaches to studying urban regimes, the key
concepts involved and the theoretical frameworks related to the study of collective decision-making.
In each section effort is made to include conceptual and theoretical discussions as well as the empirical
studies carried out in India on these topics. Section 2.1 will provide a review of the literature on urban
regimes, emphasizing the main characteristics and shortcomings of these approaches in studying
different features of land regulation as well as drawing out common features from these approaches. It
is argued that a composite perspective—examining formal and informal rules and institutions as well
as practices of actors and their networks and coalitions—is needed when studying city-level urban
land regime changes.

Section 2.2 will discuss key concepts (institutions, organizations and actors) and present a literature
review on modes of co-ordination and control mechanisms. This section will also present a discussion
on networks, focusing specifically on policy networks, coalitions and associations. The literature
reiterates time and again that the predominance of a particular type of co-ordination defines the
strategies and spaces available to actors. This type of multi-actor co-ordination can act as an important
source of power in influencing urban land regulations.

Section 2.3 presents the main theoretical frameworks that have been used to study action/decision-
making arenas. This section draws on the work of North, Ostrom and Sabatier-Jenkins Smith,
comparing their perspectives. One of the direct expected outcomes of the influencing process is
change of the land regulation regime and the development of collective public goods. Section 2.4 will
present five types of possible outcomes, drawn from literature on developmental outcomes of state
policy.

2.1 APPROACHES TO STUDYING URBAN LAND REGIMES

Regime theory has been used to describe a variety in systems of governance in several fields.
Theorists of international relations have used it to characterize different forms of the international
order, describing it as a bundle of norms, rule and decision-making procedures. Students of public
policy have also used the concept of regime and have linked regulatory practice with its political
content in cross-national comparisons (Elkin 1986). In urban political science, regime as a concept has
been used to describe enduring policy styles in city government. This approach includes the nature of
governing coalitions, the structure of relations between actors and the resources held by various
players in the system. Stone, Mossenberg and others have focused their attention on the coalitions
created between the private and public sector, with the aim of fulfilling common interests.

The existence and study of such collaboration between the private and public sectors has been termed
‘urban regime analysis’ (also called ‘urban regime theory’). It is distinctly different from the policy
regime theory mentioned above. It was developed in the USA in the mid-1980s and has been used in
western Europe as economic restructuring put development issues on the agendas of many European
cities during the 1980s (John and Cole 1998; Stoker and Mossberger 1994). It focuses primarily on
explaining the relationships between local governments and businesses in cities.

Studies of policy regimes refer more generally to the ways institutions and policies are interconnected
in different sectors of a country’s political economy. This interconnectedness may produce
institutional complementarity or other institutional features such as competition. Policy regimes are
said to be ‘path dependent’, i.e. not being able to easily change into new policy directions.

Three common features emerge from the various uses of the regime concept:

1. All definitions include a systems perspective,

13
 2. Regimes are seen as enduring phenomena,
3. Regimes are systems that can be nested in larger systems.

Thus it appears that the concept of regime is used to define, on the one hand, the policies of the state
governing a sector and, on the other hand, an enduring form of collaboration between private sector
and state actors.

A further specification of what dimensions constitute an urban regime is found in the study of risk
regulation, seen as a particular type of ‘urban regulation regime’, which outlines urban regimes as a
complex institutional geography—including rules, practices and ideas associated with urban
development (Hood, Rothstein, and Baldwin 2001). Hood emphasized that, depending on the
disciplinary background of the researcher, ‘different aspects of the regime gain focus; while the
traditional lawyer may give primacy to the formal rule structure, an institutional economist to the
underlying incentive structure, an anthropologist to the prevailing pattern of attitudes and beliefs, a
political scientist to the distribution of power amongst actors a historian to the way past shapes the
present, a geographer to the relation between physical scale and regulation’ (2001:12). The main
assumption in the use of the term ‘urban regulation regime’ is that there is state intervention and it is
regulatory in nature. To study how shifts in urban regimes occur, it is necessary to have a composite
perspective, which includes formal and informal rules and policies, institutions and organizations and
their resources, actors and their networks, and distribution of power among them.

The literature review shows that whereas economists focus on the institutions and rules, social
scientists study the practices, people and power associated with institutional regulation and change. As
the focus of this study is to examine the processes and outcome of regime change, in this study the
term urban regimes shall mean both the institutions, rules, practices or activities, actors, resources
and powers that are associated with urban land as well as its ownership, use, and development.
Thus ‘regime’ in this study will be understood and used as both a verb and a noun—a process and an
output. Specifically this study examines the transition from one type of regime to another, with the
changes in planning instruments set within the wider system of development control rules and the
Development Plan of the City of Mumbai.

Urban planning necessarily requires some form of co-ordination and collective decision-making
amongst the actors set within institutions. Thus important concepts for this study include institutions,
organizations, mechanisms and modes of co-ordination, and rules.

2.2 CONCEPTS

Institutions, organizations and actors

There is much confusion in the academic literature on differentiating between institutions and
organizations. While authors such as North (1990) and Ostrom (2005) clearly distinguish between the
two, Kabeer and Subrahmanian (1999) write about one overlapping entity. North and Ostrom, both
economists, define institutions as humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction. They are
the rules of the game that structure human exchanges—whether political, social or economic.
Institutions define and limit the set of choices available to individuals. As the goal of economic
institutions is to maximize wealth, actors influence these rules to achieve this goal. The maximization
behaviour of economic organizations therefore shapes institutional change by (1) investments in
knowledge; (2) ongoing interaction between organizing economic activity, the stock of knowledge and
the institutional framework; and (3) incremental alteration of informal constraints (North 1990).

For political scientists, institutions are constituted by the boundaries they define concerning specific
categories of people; few are fully inclusive all the time. Institutional rules and practices determine
which categories of people are included (and which excluded) and define the allocation of tasks,
activities and responsibilities within production processes and different resources in the institution.
Institutional patterns of inclusion, exclusion, position and progress express class, gender and other
social inequalities (Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1999).

14
Organizations, on the other hand, are groups of individuals bound by some common purpose. They
include political bodies (political parties, the city council or a regulatory agency), economic bodies
(firms, trade unions, family farms, cooperatives) and social bodies (churches, clubs and educational
bodies). Which organizations come to exist and how they evolve fundamentally depends on the
institutional framework. Organizations are created as a consequence of opportunity sets, resulting from
the existing sets of constraints, and take on the role of agents of institutional change by influencing the
underlying rules of the institution (North 1990).

Actor-oriented perspectives

Theories on agency of actors add a further dimension. They acknowledge that individuals are also
powerful entities able to influence institutional policies and institutional rules. In this set of theories,
the individuals within institutions can influence their policies. The main actors are state actors, which
influence decision-making along with other actors, such as private sector actors and civil society
groups (Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1999; Giddens 1986; Devas et al. 2001; Long 2001; Evans 1995).
Actor analysts bridges the gap between those theories that see economic and political structures as
dictating human behaviour and rational choice theory, which largely places the responsibility on
individuals as actors in decision-making. Actor analysis creates a middle ground by focusing on the
embedded actor, whose actions are dictated by a combination of individual and structural factors—
some rooted in the historical past, others in earlier institutional practices and the individual’s own
needs.

The actor-oriented perspective needs to be seen as a refinement rather than a contrast to the
institutional model approach to studying urban development. It has its roots in the belief that human
agency through collective action can bring about a change in the environment. The actor-oriented
perspective introduces a number of new concepts (such as networks, domains and arenas, interfaces)
as actors engage in the process of changing the institutions within which they are embedded.
Following are some key features of this approach, as adapted from Long (2001):

1. It honours heterogeneity.

2. It studies both social process as well as structural outcomes.

3. Agency of actors is seen as a collection of actors’ abilities:

i. The capacity of the actor to process their own and others’ experiences and to act upon them;

ii. A certain knowledge and ability whereby experiences and desires are reflexively interpreted
and internalized (consciously or otherwise);

iii. The capacity to command relevant skills, access material and non-material resources and
engage in particular organizing practices.

4. Social action takes place within networks of relations (involving human and non-human
components), shaped by both routine and explorative organizing practices and bound by certain
social convictions, values and power relations.

5. Social action and interpretation are context-specific and contextually generated. Boundary
markers are specific to particular domains and arenas.

6. Actor perspectives reveal interlocking relationships, actor ‘projects’ and social practices that
interpenetrate various social, symbolic and geographical spaces by using the concept of
‘interface’, which explores how cultural interactions and power relations are mediated and
perpetuated or transformed as critical points of linkage or confrontation.

Thus it is not surprising to find at a more local level a research focus on studies of local actors in urban
development, their networks and the processes they engage in to influence policy and rules of
institutions (Devas 1999; Shatkin 2007; Baud et al. 2009; Baud and de Wit 2008). Two distinct

15
perspectives appear when identifying which actors or ‘people’ interact with institutions to bring about
change. While one perspective identifies institutional patterns of inclusion and exclusion of actors, the
other emphasizes the role of the sector in deciding which actors will get involved. Both the study of
actors as well as their organizational formations while interacting with institutional rules are necessary
for this study.

According to Giddens, talking about how patterns of human behaviour form or change rules and
structures of institutions, the actions of the self are recursive, that is, there is a sameness of activity of
actors across space and time, because human action is dictated by the longue durée (drawing from the
theory of path dependency). Further human action, according to Giddens, is embedded in a set of
processes: unacknowledged conditions, reflexive monitoring of actions, rationalization of actions, and
motivation of actions. Both the actors as well as the institutions that they create in practice are being
emphasized. Building on the actor centric approach to institutional change, various authors have
examined what kinds of resources actors use to exercise their agency, and their capacity to mobilize
these resources, i.e. the formation of groups and organizations to either bring about social change or
retain rules of institutions (Giddens 1984).

The dilemma is whether changes in institutional rules by actors and their organization amount to
regime change, or are changes in the rules that govern institutions enough to bring about change in
regimes? How do actors coordinate amongst themselves, and what governs these arrangements of
coordination?

Modes of coordination

It is generally accepted that markets, state institutions and community institutions (e.g. through clans)
are three modes of coordination.8 Some authors prefer to call them modes of social control or order
(Ouchi 1991; Foucault 1991). In recent times, network associations have been included as a fourth
mode (Castells 1996; Meuleman 2010; Meuleman 2008). Each of these modes is governed by some
principles: bureaucracies are governed by hierarchical control, markets by dispersed competition and
communities are based on social ties. Further, some sectors appear to be dominated by organizations
bound by one or the other modes of control. For example, markets’ predominant mode of control is
through the private sector, while bureaucracy dominates in the public sector. To mediate transactions
between individuals within these modes requires the presence of certain conditions, outlined by Ouchi
(1991) and presented in table 2.1.

Table 2.1: A mode of coordination

Mode of Control Normative requirement Informational Requirement

Reciprocity Price
Market
Reciprocity Rules
Bureaucracy
Legitimate authority
Reciprocity Tradition
Clan
Legitimate authority
Common values and beliefs

Source: Ouchi (1991).

Academic studies that examine how the public sector, private sector and civil society cooperate
together to provide goods and services to the community tend to see society in what has been called a
three sector model, with state, private sector and civil society as distinct entities. For analytical
purposes Kabeer identifies four key institutional sites: the state, the market, the community/civil

8
Clans can be defined as lineage systems, with marriage normally occurring outside the lineage. In the Indian system, the
nearest equivalent is a gotra, found in northern India, with marriages being preferred outside the gotra.

16
society and the domain of family/kinship. The state constitutes legal, military and administration
organizations; the market is the framework for organizations like firms, financial corporations,
farming enterprises and multinationals; the community is made up of various supra-family groupings,
neighbourhood networks and non-governmental organizations. Households, extended families and
lineage groupings are some of the ways in which kinship relations are organized (Kabeer and
Subrahmanian 1999). Chatterjee brings in an added dimension specific to the Indian context, which he
terms political society, linking the poor and the state. This is distinctly different from civil society,
which is largely an arena utilized by middle-class citizens (Chatterjee 2004). Chatterjee emphasized
the existence of not only civil society which interacts with the state, primarily consisting of the middle
class, but also a political society mobilized by the state to support goals set by a government project.
Political society becomes a necessary sector, which if mobilized successfully can secure benefits for
poor and under-privileged sections of society. He claims that this is not possible within the domain of
civil society. Further, he says that only when the poor in a country like India are able to mobilize
political society and affect governmental programmes in their favour can one conclude that they have
expanded their freedom by using means not available to them in civil society (Chatterjee 2004).

These institutional sites can be clearly demarcated theoretically, but in practice a closer look at
institutions and actors in action indicates that boundaries can be 'fuzzy' (Edwards, Wu, and Mensah
2005). The fuzziness of boundaries can be explained by the degree to which state and non-state actors
may be ‘embedded’, i.e. the extent to which influential leaders are members of both state and local
groups, or business and public collaborations(Evans 1996). Thus the approach is to take a systems
view of all sectors, by looking at the different components of sectors (which could be individuals,
families, groups, organizations or any association of organizations), and how they interact with each
other and with subsystems of other sectors. Although the system has been presented as a bounded
entity for purposes of simplification, in reality there is constant movement and fluidity, which has
been taken into consideration by elaborating their interrelationships. It is only when we examine the
interests of actors within these sectors that we can identify common interests.

Heterogeneity of the urban social actors has its basis in their different interests. Common interest
actors are known to cluster and form organizations to collectively pursue their common interests.
Actors are also known to engage in social networks and direct or indirect relationships, in order to
exercise their agency or influence institutional rules and regulations. Information, resources and
services are known to be exchanged in these networks. The nodes in a network may be individuals or
organized groups, for example, family enterprises or business firms (Long 2001; Wellman 1983).

Sociologists define networks as the ‘web of relationships’ used for exchanging resources and services
(Castells 1996). Informal networks are distinct from formal networks in that they are not officially
recognized or mandated by organizations, and in that the content of their exchange can be work
related, personal or social. The network school combines structural and social exchange theories to
explain the ties and resources that individuals provide to their network members. Political scientists
studying the process through which polices are formulated and implemented have also used network
approaches. While some academics criticize the approach, seeing networks more as a metaphor than a
theory, other theorists have used it extensively in studying agricultural (Marsh and Smith 2000;
Thompson 2004; Bruckmeier and Tovey 2008) and educational policy. Some of the debates in
applying network theory to policy have centred on issues of approach and focus.

Policy networks

Policy networks can be defined as ‘complex or organizational networks connected to each other by
resource dependencies and distinguished from other by breaks in the structure of resource
dependencies’ (Benson 1982; Rhodes 1988). A network is created when exchange and adaption
processes among actors are looked upon as an investment process, to fulfil mutual needs and interests.
Although policy networks are not new and have been written about for the past twenty years, what is
new is the growing power of these networks as self-regulating bodies, with little governmental
regulation in the way of steering. It can be said that they are even challenging the interests of the state.
Rhodes (2002), in posing the possible threats of governance through self-organizing networks, feels

17
that policy networks challenge governability as they become autonomous and resist central guidance, a
process led primarily by the private sector which becomes a prime example of governing without
government. Powerful governance networks are criticized as they can consequently result in public
policies becoming shaped more by the interests of self-appointed individual actors pursuing private
interests in the network than by the larger collective public interests (Benson 1982; Pierre and Peters
2000; Rhodes 2002).

Rhodes elaborated on this point, arguing that networks have different structures of dependencies
varying over five key dimensions:

1. Constellation of interests—the interests of participating in a network vary by

services/economic function, territory, client group and common expertise (or a combination).
2. Membership—membership differs in terms of the balance between public and private sector,
and between political-administrative elites, professions, trade unions and clients.
3. Vertical interdependence—intra-network relationships vary in their degree of inter-
dependence, especially among actors central in the network in terms of the implementation of
policies for which they have service delivery responsibility.
4. Horizontal interdependence—the relationships between networks vary in their degree of
horizontal articulation, i.e. the extent to which a network is insulated from or in conflict with
other networks.
5. The distribution of resources—actors control different types and amounts of resources and
such variations in the distribution of resources affect the patterns of vertical and horizontal
interdependence.

Policy networks have been identified in India by Bardhan (1985), Lloyd and Hoeber Rudolph (1987),
and Guha (2008). Bardhan and Rudolph have called them pressure or interest groups functioning more
at the national level, while in an urban context another associational type of network has been
identified by (Narayanan 2003). The next section will examine some of these formations.

Pressure or interest groups

Political scientists identify interest-driven pressures, where specific elite groups and those who own
land or means of production have a strategic role in designing the regime (Harvey 2000; Bardhan
1985; Jessop 1997; Lloyd and Hoeber Rudolph 1987). Bardhan and Rudolph have shown that in India
different sections of interest groups have been active in influencing policies at different periods of
time, including large landowners, government officials and students. This kind of politics has been
termed demand-based politics as it allows for the accommodation of interests of different demand
groups (Harvey 2000; Jessop 1997; Bardhan 1985; Lloyd and Hoeber Rudolph 1987).

Hood also finds organized, interest-based pressure groups to exist within the government (2001).
Generally, policy networks have been identified to be functioning at the central government or sector
level (e.g., industrial networks have been identified by Evans), whereas city level networks are mainly
presented as growth coalitions only in urban regime studies (Evans 1995; Soja 2010).

Associations

The difference between policy networks, coalitions and joint projects for transformation of regimes is
that in the first two the influencing actors are not necessarily directly involved in delivering
developmental outcomes. In joint projects for regime transformation, actors who are likely to engage
in the developmental outcome of the changed rules are not merely engaging in policy change but are
also included in the implementation process. Such organized efforts of actors are seen to be
associational in nature. Associations are contrasted with community, market and state networking, as
they are organized concentrations—in contrast to the supposed ‘spontaneous solidarity’ of the
community, ‘dispersed competition’ of the market and ‘hierarchical control’ of the state.

In social science research, associations are often treated as cartels and associative action as a major
cause of inefficiency and suboptimal resource allocation. Streeck and Schimitter identified that at the
18
core of associations stands the principle of interactions and allocation amongst a privileged set of
actors (1985). Several key types of associations are class, field and professional associations. The
central principle is concentration, or negotiation, within and among a limited and fixed set of interest
organizations that recognize each other’s status and entitlements and are capable of reaching and
implementing relatively stable compromises (pacts) in the pursuit of their interests. They refer to such
coordination among a select group of actors as a corporative-associative order (Streeck and Schmitter
1986; Thompson et al. 1991).

Political scientists regard associations as a threat to liberal democracy, parliamentary rule and state
sovereignty, pointing to phenomena such as industrial action in defiance of legislation, colonization of
state regulatory agencies or undermining of parliamentary sovereignty by ‘social pacts’ negotiated
between the government and strong interest groups. However, before taking a normative position it is
important to theoretically discern the different types of connections between actors.

What differentiates associations from other pressure or interest-based politics? Interest associations
can grow into a corporative associative order, provided they are not fragmented into rival
communities, organized into competing markets for members, and/or are resources dependent. In the
corporative associative order, actors are contingently or strategically interdependent, in the sense that
actions of organized collectives can have a predictable and determining effect (positive or negative) on
the satisfaction of the interest of other collectives, and this induces them to search for stable pacts. The
motivation of actors to subordinate themselves to the associational negotiated pact provides less
uncertainty about aggregate outcomes and greater assurance of receiving a proportionally more
‘equitable’ share of the spoils.

Such corporative associations have also been called ‘private governments’, often associated with the
illegitimate use of power. However, others prefer to see such associations as arrangements that make
an attempt towards associative, self-interested collective action and towards contributing to the
achievement of public policy objectives or collective good (Lowi 1979). The functional advantage of
private interest government is that self-regulation by organized interests is capable of solving a
number of problems associated with state intervention, market competition or voluntary community
action. Such private interest government does this by providing for an .organization where policy
formation and .implementation take place within one and the same organization. The same
associations that negotiate the terms of regulation of their members’ behaviour are charged as private
governments with the responsibility to enforce them. The extent to which private and collective goods
overlap depends largely on how the relationships between organized group interests and the state are
structured, and the complex bargaining processes between them (Streeck and Schmitter 1986;
Thompson et al. 1991).

Thus, the literature presents a number of typologies of coordination amongst actors that have played a
role in influencing state policies, namely: networks, interest groups and associations. There are key
differences in the relations that they have with each other. While policy networks and interest groups
are likely to have actors from the same sector, coalitions and associations are cross-sectoral networks,
with associations likely to represent professional bodies. While policy networks and interest groups
have a strong focus on cooperating for policy changes, coalitions have the reallocation of resources
and positions as their main motive, and associations focus on joint projects and pacts in implementing
policy change.

While networks are more likely to be based on loose ties and short-lived, interest groups are more
homogenous and dismantle only after their demands have been met. Coalitions can last longer, but
have loose ties and minimum coordination. On the other hand, associations can emerge only when
they are well-organized and not fragmented. Further, the literature also suggests that the nature of
actor coordination directs the process of regime transformation. While policy networks and interest
groups are likely to bring about pressure on the state, coalitions are likely to use multiple venues and
strategies. Associations are more likely to engage in making closed bargains in a pact that promises
equitable shares to the actors involved.

19
Networks cannot be characterized as either a typical market or typical hierarchical governance
networks. Different governance structures coexist (either complementary or competitive) within the
larger system. ‘By sticking to the twin pillar of market and hierarchies our attention is deflected from a
diversity of organizational designs that are neither fish nor fowl, nor some mongrel hybrid, but a
distinctively different form’ (Powell 1990).

Mechanism of modes: price, authority and trust

The analytical approach is that hierarchies use authority as mechanism of control, just as markets use
price and clans develop trust. Authority mechanisms are written into contracts and exist implicitly by
virtue of industry practice. Both authority and price are attached to each transaction, while trust is a
type of expectation that alleviates the fear that one’s exchange partner will act opportunistically.
Zucker outlined three different ways that trust, as a set of expectations shared by all those in an
exchange, is produced (Zucker 1986). Process-based trust emerges from recurrent transactions;
characteristics–based trust rests on social similarity; and institution-based trust is tied to formal social
structures. It has also been found that markets and hierarchies, or relational trust patterns, are not
mutually exclusive mechanisms. Often price and authority mechanisms are found within firms along
with trust-based relations. Further, modes themselves may undergo transformation. In theories of
transaction costs much of the academic debate is concentrated around identifying which of the two are
most efficient: markets or hierarchies (under different conditions of uncertainty, asset specificity and
frequency of transactions). These dimensions are said to affect the costs associated with writing,
executing and enforcing contracts. When such costs are high, markets fail and hierarchies emerge in
their place.

Granovetter argued that trust can be embedded in markets through weak ties. Similarly trust and
authority are also found to be mixed amongst informal groups in firms that govern transactions.
Mutual dependency among exchange partners in firms is said to promote trust. Thus dual forms of
mechanisms are recognized in markets and hierarchies. Control mechanisms appear in the real world
in plural forms and may often run parallel to each other at different levels of transactions (individual
transactions and transactions at system levels) (Granovetter 1985). Bradach and Eccles concluded in
their chapter dedicated to this debate that a combination of control mechanisms are observed to be
overlapping, embedded, intertwined, juxtaposed and nested. This complexity they believe exists
because only occasionally are control mechanisms created on ‘greenfield’ sites. Typically control
mechanisms are grafted onto and leveraged off existing social structures, as for example in the
installation of price mechanisms in hierarchies and the functioning of business relationships in
industrial communities (Bradach and Eccles 1989).

Planning

Planning is an instrument predominantly used in hierarchical institutions to help realize the goal of
allocating goods and services. It is seen as a necessary effort on the part of the state to allocate
resources amongst citizens. The socialist model of economic allocation in India was centralized and
bureaucratic. Urban planning in India has emerged from the socialist principles adopted by national
leadership in the post-independence period. Urban planning was mostly blueprint planning, a lengthy
process justified by principles of equality and its balancing role between demand and supply ex ante
rather than ex post so as to avoid substantial waste of resources. Planning was advocated as it held the
potential to remove the predictable economic insecurity of capitalism.

Planning is seen as a major intervention or guiding strategy of the state. Planning and market
principles are often seen as in opposition to each other, and many nation states are choosing to depend
more on the market for provision of goods and services and less on centralized state planning. In India
a mixed path was chosen in the period after independence, with centralized planning used for the
allocation and trading of most goods and services (Harriss and Corbridge 2000).

It is generally accepted that a totally planned economy is no longer desirable or viable as it is unable to
deal with vast complexity of modern economic systems, creates concentrations of power in the hands

20
of central and state agencies, stimulates privately run black economy and generates new social
hierarchies divided along political or bureaucratic lines. However, this is not to say that planning is
altogether redundant and that there are no problems associated with pure market modes of allocations
of services and goods. The recent trend has been to develop means to overcome the difficulties
associated with centralized planning rather than to accept planning as undesirable and impossible.
Decentralization, democracy, local participation and negotiations are all models of contemporary
social planning (Baud and de Wit 2008; Jayal, Prakash, and Sharma 2006). In urban planning too
similar trends are visible; master planning and land use planning is being strengthened by strategic and
action planning, participatory governance and decentralized planning (Ruet and Tawa Lama-Rewal
2009).

Much of the debate is about the modes of co-ordination, whether by the market, state or civil society
or a combination of the above. Depending on the mode of co-ordination promoted by the national
government, planning mechanisms are sometimes in the forefront. When national governments move
towards more market-based modes of co-ordination, centralized planning is likely to weaken as the
role of the state itself changes more towards a coordinating and monitoring role. The decision-making
arenas reflect the complex interplay between external factors and interactions amongst the
participating actors. Another area of debate questions the very role level of urban planning, as a
significant gap opens up between increasingly techno-managerial and market-based systems of
government administration, public provision and planning, and the everyday lives of marginalized and
impoverished urban populations living largely under conditions of informality. This debate draws
attention to the gap between what has been called applying western standards of planning and the new
forms of urban informality and poverty (Devas and Rakodi 1993). As a result urban planning has
come to be viewed as a tool used by the wealthy to protect their property values and to exclude the
poor (Hall 1999; Watson 2009; Burra 2005; Roy 2009).

There are now moves towards incorporating new forms of planning in master plans which reflect more
forward and strategic planning strategies, incorporating elements of flexibility and resource
management in such plans. In India the move has been to expand project planning and create city
development plans, as part of new nationally-funded programmes like JNNURM (Sivaramakrishnan
2011). The role of municipal corporations and local planning authorities in both the planning process
and its implementation are central. The role of development plans and developmental regulations in
urban India has been studied in terms of the impediments it creates for real estate development. The
general conclusion is that in urban India development control rules have created an impossible
network of building and planning standards, which force people to circumvent the law in order to get
permissions for construction and improvements (Bertaud, Buckly, and Pathak 2005; Krishnan 2010).

Watson argues that given the changed context of planning, with shifts in governance as well as city
dynamics dominated by informalities, requires a differential response from urban actors. There is a
need to steer conflictual planning into a consensual process. This would mean lowering standards set
by planners who, in her view, need to balance between the logic of governing and the logic of
survival. She suggests that planning should work with informality, supporting the survival efforts of
the urban poor rather than hindering them through regulation or displacing them with mega-projects
(Watson 2009; Levy 2000).

Using negotiation as a strategy to interface between actors has been tried in Mumbai. As Roy shows in
the case of resettlement claims made by those displaced by a World Bank funded infrastructure
project, it consists more of making peace with the violence of the state than making place for those
evicted by the brutality of the state (Roy 2009). Efforts of NGOs are likely to be co-opted or
compromised in light of the conflict between marketization and privatization of services and
infrastructure and on-going promotion of urban modernist reforms. Similarly, Baud and Nainan show
that class conflicts are likely to turn negotiated spaces into captured spaces by a powerful section of
the city (Baud and Nainan 2008; Roy 2009).

21
2.3 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR STUDYING COLLECTIVE DECISION-MAKING

Different analytical frameworks have been proposed to study collective decision-making processes.
Devas has proposed a simple linear theoretical framework linking actors, processes and outcomes.
This framework has been further elaborated by Ostrom into an institutional analysis and
developmental framework (Devas 1999; Ostrom 2005).

Figure 2.1: Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD)

Source: Ostrom (2005).

Ostrom draws attention to the importance of the action arena as a set of dependent variables. The
factors affecting the structure of an action arena include three clusters of variables: (1) the rules used
by the participants to order their relationships; (2) the attributes of the bio-physical world that are
acted upon in these arenas; and (3) the structure of the wider community where the particular area
exists. The components of the action arena are itself assumptions about the rules used by participants
to structure their relationships, about attributes of the bio-physical world and about the nature of the
community. These jointly affect the types of actions that individuals can take, the benefits and costs of
these actions as well as the potential and likely outcomes.

Discussing what constitutes the bio-physical/material variables, Ostrom speaks of ‘events’, meaning
the ‘goods and services’ produced, consumed and allocated as well as the technology available for
these processes. Various factors—whether goods and services are toll goods, public goods, private
goods or common-pool resources; the size of the resources; the mobility of its resource unit; the
presences of storage in the system; the amount and distribution of rainfall; and many other—add up to
what constitutes the independent variable bio-physical/material conditions (Ostrom 1996).

Attributes of the community that affect the action arenas according to Ostrom include the values of
behaviour generally accepted in the community; levels of common understanding that the potential
participants share (or do not share) about the structure of particular types of action arenas; the extent
of homogeneity in the preference of those living in a community; the size and composition of the
relevant community and the extent of inequality of basic assets among those affected. Culture, history
of experience with governance institutions affects the way local participants understand, implement,
modify or ignore rules written by external officials. The extent to which common values are held and
vernacular language is used language to express their ideas, develop common understanding, share
learning and explain the foundation of their social order are also crucial variables relevant to
institutional analysis.

22
The concept of rules is central to the analysis of institutions. Ostrom uses rules as a set of instructions
creating an action situation in a particular environment. Rules combine to build the structure of an
action situation. While some theories lay too much importance on the rules, others believe that rules
are important only because they allow the outcomes—which are result of the choices made by
participants—to be unambiguously specified. As there are a number of rules, it is necessary only to
classify rules according to their direct impact on the workings of an action situation.

Participants in an action situation are decision-making entities capable of selecting actions from a set
of alternatives made available at nodes in decision-making processes. Participants in action situations
can also be corporate actors (nations, states in a federal system, private corporations, NGOs etc.).
Ostrom identified several important attributes: number of participants, their status as individuals or as
a team or composite actor, and various individual attributes (such as age, education, gender and
experiences).

Ostroms’ attributes regarding participants are rather weak as they do not include the interests and
resources of the participants. Devas has suggested a more elaborate list of attributes of participants
important for decision-making process (1999). Which actors are included in the policymaking arena?
He observes that usually the most powerful interests within communities dominate policymaking
arenas. It is important therefore to examine which sections of society are included among
policymakers. Althorpe uses the term ‘framing’ to describe the way in which policies crucially
determine or specify ‘what and who is actually included, and what and who is ignored and excluded’.
Kabeer uses ‘privileging’ and ‘suppressing’ to further indicate that both conscious interest politics as
well as unconscious bias may play a role in policy ‘framing’ (Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1999).

Describing the action situation, Ostrom identified several positions that participants take on (2005):
player, voter, judge, buyer, seller, legislator and police officer. Depending on the structure of the
situation, a participant may simultaneously occupy more than one position. Action situations vary
substantially regarding the degree to which participants control their own entry or exit from a position.

Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1999), in their study on decision-making process, have examined the
action arena in more detail. They stressed the aspect of consensus needed for major policy change and
the conflicting nature among participants in coalition formations. Similarly, Stone asserted that power
to govern urban areas is fragmented and any decision-making requires a coalition of actors (Stone
1989). In the next section the advocacy coalition framework developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith
will be presented.

Structure of advocacy coalition framework (ACF)

According to Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, policymaking occurs in a policy political subsystem. This is
a geographically defined policy arena that encompasses policy participants from all levels of
government, multiple interest groups, research institutions and media.

23
Figure 2.2: Elements of key variables in the ACF

Relative stable Policy subsystem Policy subsystem

Coalition A Coalition B
parameters Degree of
a. Policy belief Policy a. Policy belief
1.Basic attribute of consensus Broker
b. Resources b. Resources
the problem area needed for
2. Basic distribution major policy
of natural resources change Decisions by
Strategy A Strategy B
3. Fundamental Govt Authority
socio-cultural
values and
social structure Institutional
4. Basic constitutional Constrains and
rules,
structure resources
Resources,
of subsystem
allocates
of actors
and
Appointments

External (system)
events Policy outputs
1. Change in socio- economic And
conditions Policy impacts
2.Change in public opinion
3. Change in Systemic
governing coalitions
4. Policy decisions and impact

Source: Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith (1999).

The ACF combines actor-oriented perspective with ideas of structuration. The ACF incorporates the
existing pattern of structured relationships, in the variable of relatively stable parameters and at the
same time incorporates the actor/agency aspect of any intervention. The next section will cover
definitions developed to explain the ACF.

Relatively stable parameters remain stable over a long period of time—100 years or more. They
pertain to the nature of the problem, the resources available to policy actors; they establish rules and
procedures for changing policy and reaching collective decisions, and form the values that inform
policymaking. The relatively stable parameters frame the policymaking process with a policy
subsystem with its territorial boundaries (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1999).

The territorial boundary of the policy influencing/intervention process is made up of and by policy
participants from all levels of government, multiple interest groups, and media and research
institutions. They seek to influence policy subsystems and maintain their participation over long
periods of time, ensuring their objectives are achieved. Similar to Ostrom, Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith
also identify the external or context variables as independent variables which shape the action arenas
or venues in this conceptual map.

‘Venues’ are political arenas where collective decision-making among actors takes place. Sabatier and
Jenkins-Smith suggest that participants in the venue form coalitions, and there they have an
opportunity to influence beliefs of policy stakeholders. Coalitions spend a considerable amount of
time venue shopping, looking for an arena where they might have competitive advantages. They often
launch initiatives in several venues that are similar territorially and often interact in such venues
simultaneously. In order to shape policymaking processes and outcomes, coalitions attempt to
influence views, change institutional rules, resource allocations and decision-making. The policy
outcomes in one sector often affect policies outside that particular subsystem.

In comparative policy subsystems, policy disagreements between coalitions escalate into political
problems. Conflicts are mediated by policy brokers who seek to find reasonable compromises among
hostile coalitions. ACF also recognizes the possibility of a ‘stalemate’ between coalitions without

24
possibility of resolution: political participants on both side of the issue consider the status quo
unacceptable and perceive no alternative venues for achieving their objectives.

Strengths and limitations of the ACF

ACF presumes that individuals are rationally motivated but bound by their imperfect cognitive ability
to learn about a complex world. It does not challenge the notion that individuals tend to accept
information that bolsters their belief, and discard information that contradicts their learning from
earlier experiences. It is important to introduce Giddens’ concept of recursive human social activity
here. Thus, it largely depends upon the ability of actors to learn from their actions, a process of
building knowledge by internalizing the consequences of actions, which determines the nature of
change or continuity.

Despite its limitations the framework can be used as a starting point to examine the public
policymaking process and how it is influenced by various actors and their coalitions. It has several
strengths as a framework:

1. It provides a framework to study on-going change within an institution.

2. The framework provides an opportunity to study not only local but also national and
international actors.
3. It provides the opportunity to examine interfaces between different actor networks and groups,
recognizing this interface as a site of conflict, dialogue and negotiation.
4. The framework does not limit itself to the policy process but also includes social and cultural
structures of society (the relatively stable parameters), thereby overcoming Moe’s critique of
neo-institutionalist scholars, who according to him are interested only in ’midcourse
correction which accelerates their progress’ (Moe 1990).

However, the framework’s benefit for the study of interventions in urban development of Mumbai will
be limited, unless one further issue is linked to the existing framework, namely, the outcomes and
impacts of policy implementation. Also some social activities by social actors can work towards
changing the relatively stable parameter, and this itself could be an outcome to be examined.

Project level political society appears in Chatterjee’s work on Bengal where he identifies the
functioning of networks between the poor and political leaders, calling it ‘political society’ (2004). He
defines political society as constituting largely the poor and the underprivileged sections of society;
their activities largely fall outside the legal parameters set by the state, but they still make claims to
habitat and livelihoods as a matter of right. Also state agencies recognize that they have rights on
government programmes and welfare but their rights but are not justifiable rights as the state does not
have the means to deliver those benefits to the entire population. As a result, Chatterjee writes, a
process of negotiation takes place between groups of the population and government agencies. The
instrumental use of votes also takes place as part of this negotiation which involves political parties,
leaders, influential groups, government functionaries and others. These negotiations are part of the
political society processes mediated by intermediaries, who could be political or group leaders.

Benjamin (Benjamin and Bhuvaneswari 2001) came to a very different conclusion about the
relationships between groups of poor citizens and elite actors. He found that in order for groups of
poor to retain access to land, they form transaction networks with local elites. Where local elites are
not linked to local land development programmes or local economies, the poor face high risks of
losing their access to land, as their alliances with the local power structure remain fragile. One school
of thought sees this form of coalition as a cartel or capture of the state. A second view is that the
interaction between the hierarchy of state departments forming networks with sections or class groups,
with the objective of bringing about rule and regime changes, is necessary for transformation and
growth. A third view is that policy networks are not necessarily constraints on government but can be
manipulated by governments towards fulfilling their own interest, i.e. proposing an asymmetric
relationship (Evans 1995; Stone 1989).

25
Evans has shown that states foster the embedding of industries by assisting new social groups and
interests. According to him, fostering requires a level of connection between the bureaucracy and
networks of social groups and classes, who together share a project, resulting in transformation and
growth. In such joint collaborations private interests are also responsible for implementing joint
projects. Further, it is quite possible that a number of advocacy networks exist around the same issue,
representing different interest groups. Which network is eventually successful is determined by the
opportunity structure provided by the state as well as the strategy and power of the network actors or
as Evans puts it on the nature of ‘autonomy and embeddedness’ (1995).

The mere existence of coalitions is not sufficient to indicate that regimes exist. Dowding et al. suggest
that the regime model (here he is referring to regime analysis) has eight characteristics (Dowding et al.
1999), but in order to identify a particular local government coalition as regime, a subset of these
characteristics needs to be present. The first four are particularly significant: (1) a distinctive policy
agenda, which is (2) relatively long-lived and (3) sustained by coalitions of interests or personnel not
formally or fully specified in institutional structures, often in the form of a ‘grand coalition’ or a
larger-majority coalition of interests, and often with (4) cross-sectoral or institutional boundaries. The
policy agenda should also (5) survive personnel and leadership changes or political succession,
reflecting a specific ideology or agreement over fundamental values for members of the coalition; this
allows for continued electoral success. It should also (6) primarily involve the mobilization of external
resources, creating a positive-sum game within the polity and the formation of public-private
partnerships, often transcending partisan divisions. It should (7) be associated with strong or
exceptional leadership, capable of assembling an unusual coalitions and linking it with a distinctive
political vision. And, finally, it should aim towards (8) bridging institutions and community interest by
creating ‘partnership’ forms, spanning the public-private sector divide. What appears important is that
the coalition is able to bridge sectors and has a distinctive vision and policy agenda that survive
personnel and leadership changes.

Despite the fact that it takes into account contextual, actor and relational factors, the main limitation of
the advocacy coalition framework by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith is that it completely ignores informal
processes of decision-making. These processes form a large part of the hidden arena or what
Chatterjee calls ‘political society’ (2004). Further, it is also possible that the same actors are engaged
in not one but multiple policies within the same or different spheres (which could take place
simultaneously at different scales). Jetkins and Smith use only two criteria to describe a coalition,
common beliefs and non-trivial engagement. This seems rather general and does not clearly
distinguish between a network, a coalition or any other associational action. These definitions need to
be examined more closely. The difference between policy networks, coalitions and joint projects for
transformation of regimes is that in the first two the influencing actors are not necessarily directly
involved in delivering the developmental outcome.

It is also important to have a closer look at the process of negotiations and dialogue. Long has called
such spaces where dialogue takes place ‘interfaces’, highlighting that its analysis enables us to
comprehend how ‘dominant’ discourse are endorsed, transformed or challenged (2001). According to
him the concept of interface is broader than that of space for negotiation. Interface situations often
provide the means by which individuals or groups come to define their own cultural or ideological
positions vis-à-vis those espousing opposing views. Thus such interfaces occur at different levels and
within these various interfaces struggles of meanings and relationships take shape. Following Long’s
definition of interface, various spaces in which debates and decisions on urban development in
Mumbai take place can be defined as interfaces: courts, MCGM, MMRDA, urban infrastructure and
housing projects, development plans etc. It is necessary to draw boundaries around the interfaces
being studied as part of this study (see chapter 3).

Negotiation and dialogue in the urban development interfaces or action arenas

For this discussion I would like to draw on Anthony Gramsci's insight that the persistence of social
and economic structures in the face of the inequalities and alienation of early twentieth century
capitalism does not dependent on coercive control by a small elite (1971). Rather, hegemony rests on a

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broad base of consent, which relies on coalitions and compromises that provide a measure of political
and material accommodation with other social groups, and on ideologies to achieve a mutuality of
interests. Later studies by Domhoff and others have used this framework to study the American
policymaking process (Domhoff 1990).

Gramsci assumes that the information and knowledge of social groups is complete and that other than
loss of ideology by accommodation there can be no gain in dialogue. Secondly, he also assumes that
identities are frozen and not overlapping and there is no common ground on which the collective
power of the elite and the commoner can be exercised. Friere and Long, on the other hand are much
more positive about interfaces as spaces where collective power and knowledge can be created as
outcomes of struggles over meanings and resources (Long 2001; Gramsci 1971; Freire 1970).

According to Long actors use interfaces to develop strategies of compromise and accommodation with
social groups that have other ideological positions, in order to achieve a common interests. This
encounter incorporates new information, which reshapes already existing knowledge frames and
evaluative modes (themselves reshaped thought the communicative process). Hence knowledge
emerges as a product of intention, dialogue, reflexivity and contest of meaning, and involves aspects
of control, authority and power. Creating room for manoeuvring implies a degree of consent, a degree
of negotiations and thus a degree of power, as manifested in the possibility of exerting some control,
prerogative, authority and capacity for action. Thus it appears that power inevitably generates
resistance, accommodation and strategic compliance as regular components of everyday politics (Long
2001; Scott 1985).

An important purpose of the interface is negotiation over social values or what Ostrom calls social
dilemmas (2005). In urban development similar to other arenas, actors and their organizations have
differing values. For example, residents and neighbourhoods would like to retain, protect and enhance
social relations and public spaces while builders would like to see more land come under
development. The interface provides a space for dialogue over diverging values and seeks possibilities
where interests can be knitted together.

The outcome of the interface depends on a number of variables including the location of the interface,
rules that define the space and its participation, the ability and willingness of the actors and their
networks to use this space for negotiations as well as the strategies and tactics used by the actors.
Academics are critical about such interfaces because these ‘encounters’ (as Long calls them) take
place in unequal playing fields and are mere acts of performance without any real intention to change
social relations. Along similar lines, a study by Palumbo and Nachmias pointed out that policymakers
often are not looking for the best way or most efficient alternative for solving a problem. They are
instead searching for support for action already taken and for support that serves the interests of
various components of the policy shaping community (Gramsci 1971; Palumbo and Nachmias 1983).

2.4 OUTCOME AND IMPACT OF URBAN LAND REGIMES

There is sparse academic work on the outcomes of rule changes—undertaken jointly by state, society
actors—and their implementation in the form of collective public goods. Drawing primarily from the
literature on development outcomes of state policy changes and the accompanying assessment tools,
the research asserts no simple relationship between the efforts of actors and fixed or planned
outcomes. The consequences are more likely to be unanticipated.

Large sections of the political science literature are very critical of the development outcomes that
state action can produce. Even the most well intended and well thought-out interventions fail,
according to Scott, because they do not take into account social structures and local knowledge (Scott
1998). Scott and Ferguson analyze how and why development plans often fail in achieving their
intended aims. People refuse to be rendered legible and enumerable through census surveys; and
development programmes often are used to serve interests and fail in their stated goals. The collective
side effect is expansion and de-politicization of bureaucratic power. Development outcomes are not as
envisaged. Foucault suggests that one should examine what is being served by the failure of

27
development projects or more correctly which section or whose interests are being served by the
project, pointing to the hidden or covert goals of the project (Foucault 1991).

Economists use the linear approach to study outcomes, where the outcomes are measured by
examining the achievement of expressed and implicit policy goals. In another approach to studying
outcomes–the relational approach—the policy statement is described as a desired ends, with a range of
means selected for achieving it (Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1999).

This study deals with joint state-society process and projects, which bring about change in urban land
regulation regimes (specifically changes in the rules governing the development of the city), and shall
focus on what the literature has to say about development/collective good outcomes in this sector. The
shift as mentioned in chapter 1 is from the earlier planning instruments to the new planning
instruments that are based on market strategies.

Indicators to assess outcomes of new planning instruments

Kabeer draws attention to the fact that all means and ends relationships exist within institutional
contexts, and that these institutions are the sites of rules and resources, production and
allocation/distribution and power relations. At the level of policy design, the first problem is that the
finite means available to policymakers lend themselves to a variety of different ends. Thus, according
to Kabeer, the basic dilemma for policymakers is how to go about selecting specific sets of means and
ends over others, i.e. which instruments are selected for reaching which goals. It is therefore important
to include within the conceptual framework the instrument or policy means that were chosen over
others. Perhaps these problems on the means, the ends and who is included in the policymaking
process are all settled on the basis of which actor can eventually realize the goal. In other words, if the
objective of the joint programme to gain ’power to’ is performance related, then the choice of
instruments, means and actors to be included in the policymaking process is guided by this larger goal
rather than any moral or ethical obligation.

The envisaged outcome motivates actors to shape institutional change. However, this behaviour is
likely to result in other unplanned outcomes. The literature describes a number of potential outcomes
over and above the changes in regimes. Some prominent outcomes as well as the concepts that
describe these are discussed below.

1. Change in regime

A key element of regime formation is the joining of forces between private sector actors and the state
to transform urban areas, which results in a new mode of control or a shift from a ‘government’ to a
‘governance’ mode of control. Changing roles of actors and from governments to governance in urban
areas have been extensively discussed in the academic literature (Pierre and Peters 2000; Maloney,
Smith, and Stoker 2000). This shift of engagement with multiple actors and primarily with non-state
actors is observed as a move towards neo-liberalization of urban politics (Harris, Hunter, and Lewis
1995).

One of the policy outcomes of the New Planning Instruments in Mumbai is the new roles and tasks for
the state, the private sector as well as for civil society groups (such as the community-based
organizations of slum residents).

Arrangements which involve multiple actors beyond the state are novel to India. Swyngedouw
describes state-based arrangements as ‘hierarchical and top–down (command-and-control) forms of
setting rules and exercising power (but recognized as legitimate via socially agreed conventions of
representation, delegation, accountability and control) and mobilizing technologies of government
involving policing, bio-political knowledge and bureaucratic rule. Governance-beyond-the-state
systems, in contrast, are presumably horizontal, networked and based on interactive relations between
independent and interdependent actors who share a high degree of trust, despite internal conflict and
oppositional agendas, within inclusive participatory institutional or organizational associations’
(Swyngedouw 2005, p. 1994-1995).
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According to Schmitter, governance is a ‘method/mechanism for dealing with a broad range of
problems/ conflicts in which actors regularly arrive at mutually satisfactory and binding decisions by
negotiating with each other and co-operating in the implementation of these decisions’ (2002, 12).
‘Governance beyond the state’ is resolutely put forward as presenting an idealized normative model
(Le Galès, 1995; Schmitter, 2000; Schmitter, 2002), which promises to fulfil the conditions of good
government ‘in which the boundary between organizations and public and private sectors has become
permeable’ (Stoker 1998). ‘It implies a common purpose, joint action, a framework of shared values,
continuous interaction and the wish to achieve collective benefits that cannot be gained by acting
independently (Maloney et al., 2000; C. Rakodi, 2003; Stoker, 1998).’ This model is related to a view
of ‘governmentality’ that considers the mobilization of resources (ideological, economic, cultural)
from the actors operating outside the state system as a vital part of democratic, efficient and effective
government (Pierre & Peters, 2000).

Swyngedouw insists that successful restructuring of capitalism demands strong ‘governance’ in order
to produce stronger ‘economic dynamics’ within the market and simultaneously maintain cohesion
with civil society. According to him, the ‘restructuring of “governance” often takes place at exactly
the time that civil society goes through painful shocks associated with that restructuring; shocks that
further undermine the legitimacy of the state and reinforce calls for alternative models of
“governance”. In other words, “governing” becomes more problematic and the terrains of governance
begin to shift’. The state in such situations can either become more authoritarian (as happened with
fascism) or more autocratic, while delegating power and including new strata of civil society in the
forms of governance. Drawing from Foucault’s notion of governmentality, which refers to the
rationalities and tactics of governing and how they become expressed in particular technologies of
governing, Swyngedouw draws attention to the tactics of government as a dynamic form and historical
stabilization of societal power relations (D. Harvey, 2005; Lemke, 2002; Swyngedouw, 2005).

Governmentality, therefore, is at the same time both internal and external to the state, since it is the
tactics of government that make it possible to continually redefine what is within the competence of
the state and what is not, i.e. the public versus the private. Thus, ’the state can only be understood in
its survival and its limits on the basis of the general tactics of governmentality’ (Foucault 1991, 103).
Within this definition the neo-liberal agenda for the ‘withdrawal of the state’ can be deciphered as a
technique of the government, which does not always lead to the state losing powers of regulation and
control and can instead be construed as a re-organization or restructuring of government techniques,
shifting the regulatory competence of the state onto ‘responsible’ and ‘rational’ individuals.

‘Neo-liberalism’, as Lemke describes it, ‘encourages individuals to give their lives a specific
entrepreneurial form’. It responds to stronger ‘demand’ for individual scope for determination and
desired autonomy by ‘supplying’ individuals and collectives with the possibility of actively
participating in the solution of specific matters and problems that had hitherto been the domain of
specialized state agencies. This participation has a ‘price tag’: the individuals themselves have to
assume responsibility for these activities and the possible failure thereof (Lemke, 2001).

Lemke argues that a Foucaultian perspective permits a view of neo-liberalism not as the end but a
transformation of politics that restructures the power relations in society. What we observe today is
not a diminishment or reduction of state sovereignty and planning capacities, but a displacement from
formal to informal techniques of government and the appearance of new actors on the scene of
government (e.g. NGOs). Statehood is being fundamentally transformed with a redefined relationship
between state and civil society actors (Lemke 2002; Baud and de Wit 2008).

Jessop draws out a further distinction between governance and meta-governance (2002). Meta-
governance refers to the strategic activities of the state in relation to governance, such as decisions
concerning the overall design, balance and coherence among different modes of governance (through
hierarchy, market exchange and networks). Thus the process of decision-making on modes of
governance is termed meta-governance. While meta-governance is principally focused on the strategic
capacities of the state and the nature of state power, governance is connected more with state activities
that impinge directly upon a range of actors. Classifying regimes from the meta-governance perceptive

29
can be done in terms of strategic capacity of the regime itself and the balance of power between the
ruling coalition and any organized opposition or countervailing power.

2. Quantity of outputs—collective goods delivered by the regime

The strongest advocates of joint state-society projects point to the quantity of collective goods realized
through such efforts. Promoters of new public management argue that well-designed market planning
instruments (MBI), if applied appropriately, offer the potential to deliver more collective goods at
lower cost to governments and, with improved flexibility and lower compliance costs, to landholders
than alternative instruments.

Another key discussion in the academic literature deals with the price and undesirable outputs of
market instruments. Amongst the undesirable outputs of market- based instruments is that they may
cause inflation in the real estate sector, driving up the price of land and housing. This problem is likely
to keep new consumers out of the market and to make it more attractive for a section of consumers to
feed inflation market. As a result consumers show a tendency hoarding.

Market instruments intrinsically depend on market forces. In this case it means price and availability
of input materials (such as land, cement, capital) and price of incentive outputs (such as TDR, middle
and upper class housing units etc.). Some researchers have pointed to the possibility of growing
inequality within the city as an outcome of NPI. Some market externalities can also be location
specific. These spatial preferences need to be closely studied along with any potential inter-linkages
(D'Souza 1990; D'Souza 1990).

3. Achievement of social welfare value

Policies are designed to achieve the goals set by the regime. Policy academics write of two sets of
goals, one often referred to as the ‘Pareto principle’ goal and another known as the ‘value oriented’
goal. Rather than defining efficiency as the ability to make someone better off without making
someone else worse off (the Pareto principle), efficiency is defined as the allocation of goods to
maximize the social welfare function or the ’greatest good’ principle. The assumptions inherent in the
principle are that utility of the good is experienced equally by all. Value oriented goals reflect values
set by the society at large and are normative in their essence. As individuals we turn to philosophy,
religion, and our moral institution to help ourselves develop systems of values that in turn guide our
assessments of which value achievement will result in social welfare. There is no universally accepted
value description for social welfare. In the absence of a consensus on the values to be considered and
their relative importance when they conflict, our political institutions must play a role in selecting the
specific values to be considered in collective decision-making. Thus decision-making often involves a
trade-off between achieving the ‘greatest good for all’ and specific social welfare values.

Some of the social welfare values which compete with efficiency are mentioned in ‘Human dignity;
equity of opportunity and basic consumption’(Weimer and Vining 1992). The other approach has been
to study which human needs are being fulfilled as an outcome of policy or rule change. This has been
called the ‘hierarchy of needs’ approach, drawn from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Ends or outcomes
of any intuitional intervention need to be evaluated in terms of whether they achieve human well-
being (security, survival, dignity and autonomy) and for which section of people (Kabeer and
Subrahmanian 1999).

What is crucial in the discussion of outcomes is whether the new urban policy regime increases
equality of outcomes, i.e. can it deliver fairer distribution of land and related public services across
geographical space and classes in Mumbai? One possible way is to study the changes in ownership
and land use by different social classes in the city. Alternatively the consumption of land based
services for the poorest groups in the city can be studied. John Rawls argued that policies should aim
to deliver the greatest benefit to the least advantaged members of society, a principle also upheld by
Gandhi (Rawls 1971; Gandhi 1948).

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Equality has been written about as ‘vertical equality’ or equality amongst hierarchical social classes.
For example, in terms of tax policy vertical equality means that those with greater wealth pay higher
taxes so that everyone gives up the same level of utility. The other is ‘horizontal equity’, which
requires that those in similar circumstance be treated alike.

Building on horizontal and vertical equality amongst citizens, the International Federation for Housing
and Planning suggests that equality as a goal needs to be broken down into equality amongst citizens
living in similar urban areas (1998). It recommended three criteria for assessing equality amongst
citizens:

1. Equality of land cost for citizens living in urban areas;

2. Security of tenure of land for the squatter population;
3. Improvements in living conditions of the squatter households and communities.

Rakodi introduces a comprehensive set of indicators to assess changes in household assets, such as
human, social political, physical, financial and natural capital (Rakodi and Lloyd-Jones 2002). As the
key question of the study is to study which section of the community has benefited from the new
planning instruments and how have the living conditions improved for all, it is important to study key
physical assets—housing and basic amenities, access to public amenities and social political capital—
as these are likely to be impacted by the new planning instruments.

An economic angle to the nature of public goods produced would be to assess whether the output
goods have been transformed in the process of production, i.e. whether ‘pure’ public goods (e.g.
playgrounds) have become club goods or toll goods. Even though the use of the criteria of quantum of
goods produced may indicate a positive trend (compared to earlier modes of production), if the output
goods have a limited use their production does not fulfil the stated objective of the market instrument.
Using this definition of public outputs of the policy process, the economic and management literature
has identified four basic types of goods, namely: toll goods, private goods, public goods and common-
pool resources (Ostrom 2005). These differentiations are made on two distinguishing features:
subtractability of use and difficulty of excluding potential beneficiaries.

Table 2.2: Four basic types of goods

Subtractability of use
Low High
Difficulty of excluding Low Toll goods Private goods
potential beneficiaries High Public goods Common-pool resources

Source: Ostrom (2005).

4. Altering power inequality?

Criticizing the liner approach to social welfare, Kabeer states that empowerment has many different
dimensions and cannot be captured through unidimensional or hierarchical measures. The need is to
focus on whether the policy has a potential to transform. In other words, what difference can it make
in the lives of different sections of society and how significant is this difference in terms of structural
power inequities? Power relations are also an outcome of any policy action. Changes in rules and
regimes also change the power relations amongst the actors, concentrating more power in those actors
favoured by the rules in terms of resource and authority (i.e. recognized power to make decisions). In
the broader social sense, however, power is not formally rule defined, but is most likely to be
exercised by those who are able to mobilize these resources over a range of organizational domains
(Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1999).

A new regime is created by a coalition of actors. What space do the hitherto excluded have in the new
coalition and at what level of governance? Are the empowered sections of urban society able to redraw

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rules to their own benefit or to the benefit of a larger section of society? These are some of the
potential outcomes of the new regime.

5. Impact on city space

A number of urban writers have written about the impact of changed urban rules and policies on city
space. Jones has suggested that the state institutions are endowed with distinctive spatial selectivities.
Spatial selectivity refers to the process of spatial privileging and articulation through which state
policies are differentiated across territorial space, in order to target particular geographical zones and
scales. State spatiality is never permanently fixed but like all other aspect of the state, represents an
emergent, strategically selective and political contested process (Jones 2001).

Modernity and post-modernity are seen entangled in city space through the praxis of fragmentation
and ephemerality, indicating that the status of a globalized city is being earned through the production,
disaggregating and flexibilization model of globalization, reflecting a wider restructuring of the
economy. McGrew identifies five such contradictory forms of metropolitan spatiality (McGrew 1993).
They demonstrate a differential and contingent reach that embodies more tensions and oppositions
than convergence and uniformity:

- Political relations in such disjoined city space tend toward polyanarchy—a politics of
grudging tolerance—which emerges from interactions and accommodation within and
between various class and ethnic power groups.
- As these cities become linked to global networks, their basic industrial functions become
flexibilized, organized around declining industrial areas on small sized units integrated into
clusters of economic activity. Such spaces are occupied simultaneously by labour intensive
craft forms and high-end technology.
- The function of the city diversifies.
- Increased mobility of capital and information changes claims on built environments.
- Segmented localities and social polarization

Intertwined with the contemporary politics of space they reflect characteristics of fragmented praxis,
indicating that not all quarters of population and space are equally affected by the above process.

Harvey places the logic of Mumbai’s ‘restructuring’ on the shift of capital from primary circuit of
production to the secondary circuit of the built environment, a movement towards financial
manipulation rather than productive enterprise as a source of profit based on the flexibilization
hypothesis (Harvey 1985). Thereby Mumbai is redefined as a ’heteropolis’—a multifunctional place
where city spaces co-exist with the contradictions and flux of the postmodern city (Harvey 1996).

Globalization of capital, labour and culture are found to be intrinsically associated with the
restructuration process of Mumbai, resulting in extreme heterogeneity. Banerjee-Guha stresses that
‘heterogeneity systematically leads to greater marginalization of the poor and polarization of city
space’ (2007, 26). The overall result is division of territories into autonomous functional units, having
links with diacritical set ups of global systems, with large geographical incongruity. The resultant
‘spaces of differences’ reflect an actual spatial imbalance combining modern functions and ‘first
worlding’ in certain areas, with relocating sections of the poor and dilapidate area giving way to ‘edge
cities’. At the heart of the above ‘heterotopia’ lies the contradiction of capitalism subsumed in the
endless interplay of differentially woven networks of locality and globality (Soja 2010; Banerjee-Guha
2007; Dematteis 1994; Katz 2001; Dear and Flusty 1998; Dear and Flusty 2002; Foucault 1986;
Nijman 2008).

It would be incorrect to define Mumbai’s transition as a ’post-Fordist’ phase; a large section of the
population has always functioned outside the formal organized industrial labour force. The flexibility
that appears to emerge in the post-Fordist phase existed simultaneously with large groups of formal
industrial labour. The above theories pay too much attention to global flows of capital, linking up with
global networks of information, finance and consumerist goods. Other factors such as interests of local

32
entrepreneurs, changes in interests of political actors are underemphasized. Further, the state has a
large role in designing spatial selectivity, which is also ignored by this analysis. Another element that
is missing is the role played by land markets in the urban spatial landscape. Several urban studies in
India, completed by Benjamin, examine this relationship. He finds that while at the local level the state
is open and porous to influence of local political leaders, at the state level the influence of the private
entrepreneurs amounts to a takeover of the public policymaking domain (Benjamin 2000). Urban
historians have been able to prove that the modern spatial selectivity of the state has a certain path
dependency. In Mumbai, with its colonial history of differentiated townships for the colonizers and the
indigenous people, this process of segregation will continue.

Following this literature review it appears that a section of the local actors have historically asserted
their interest in governance of land and its development in Mumbai. Colonial forces were obstructed
in their efforts to bring land under uniform rules, and efforts to apply the global city model of
Singapore to Mumbai were similarly thwarted in the early 1990s. Other groups of local actors were
and are more willing to participate in earlier efforts of colonial and now global economic forces to
liberalize land and its development. This political process has a geographical aspect. Nijman (while
studying the shifts of offices in Mumbai during the post-liberalization period, shows that only a small
part of the city—located near and around the old business district—is linked with the global world.
The question therefore would be whether the new planning instruments, which engage with non-state
actors in a new way to deliver land based public goods, are able to reverse the process of segregation
of urban space of Mumbai (Kaiwar 1994; Dossal 1995; Nijman 2007).

The study of urban space phenomena highlights the linkages between one spatial formation in one area
with the behaviour of urban dwellers in the same or related area. Is there a relationship or a linkage
between the spatial changes, which otherwise are shown as fragmented or splintered? Are the spatial
splinters related? Another set of questions evoked by scales of decision-making and their relationship
is whether there is a linkage between policies and practices as they take shape locally and with the
help of state efforts. Urban decision-making processes are much more complex than usually assumed
and there is a need to compare processes within different arenas of practice, and the negotiations and
bargains struck amongst actors who hope to benefit from development.

Outcome parameters thus need to examine greater complexity over and above the question whether the
welfare goals of the policy have been achieved or not. It is important to ask what is the justice model
and the role of the state in the actual provision of these services? Has the differentiation between
social groups lessened or increased as a result of changes in urban regimes? Has the adoption of new
rules improved the economic basis of the state? How has the adoption of New Planning Instruments
(TDR and AR), which engage private landowners and builders as co-producers of public amenities,
impacted the decision-making process on the provision of amenities and what are its effects on urban
equality? The outcomes of this discussion on the literature are incorporated in the conceptual
framework developed in chapter 3 for this study.

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I will first discuss the position of this research within the larger methodological
framework. Then key concepts, definitions, questions, sources and tools of data collection and analysis
will be introduced. Section 3.1 of this chapter will focus on issues regarding the research
methodology: the paradigm, the epistemological stance as well; as the ethics of the research and its
location. Section 3.2 will examine the improved Advocacy Coalition Framework and its ability to
answer the specific research questions posed by this study. Section 3.3 will present the data sources
and tools used in the study and sample choice. The tools of analysis are discussed in section 3.4 and
section 3.6 will present the scope and limitations of the study.

3.1 RESEARCH PARADIGM

The choice of research practice depends on the research questions posed, the context in which the
research is undertaken, the availability of information as well as time and resource constraints
(Grossberg, Nelson, and Treichler 1992). The main question posed in the study is about multi-actor
interventions in urban planning and development, focusing specifically on the changes brought about
by joint state-society-market efforts in urban land regulation regimes. As the scope of this question is
vast, the focus in this study is on the specific case of how the drafting of the revised Development Plan
for Mumbai, how the different actor and the outcomes and their impacts on land regulation and the
communities affected by the process.

The revised Development Plan as presented in the first chapter touches upon many shifts in urban
policy. This study focuses on three planning instruments (the third was discovered during data
collection), looking at the policy-making process, its content and outcomes. The period of analysis is
from the mid-1980s to 2005 (mid-1980s to 1991 was the period of formation of these instruments,
while 1991 to 2005 was the main period of implementation) as the predominant period of
implementation, such that outcomes could be assessed.

The study depends on historical documents to trace the actors’ actions using reports, newspaper
articles as well as state and court documents. Simultaneously, by interviews with the actors involved
as well as case studies of communities affected and an analysis of policy actions the study provides an
eclectic approach.

The researcher’s epistemological position is that of a housing rights activist who has worked with
squatter communities and housing rights organizations and movements of Mumbai for over two
decades. This means that the researcher is well aware of her activist bias in studying multi-actor policy
intervention, drawing from her own experiences and the political economy and human rights
perspective. At the same time she recognizes the are limitations of the subjectivity it entails which can
only be compensated by drawing from other perspectives and a scientific interdisciplinary approach.
Academics studying urban phenomenon have found that interdisciplinary methods provide a wider
scope to study the interconnections of capital and space. (Logan and Molotch 1987; Patel 2003).

All interviewees were duly informed of the goals and objectives of the research. The names of some of
the interviewees (those who chose to remain anonymous) have been changed to maintain
confidentiality. Data was gathered from the community only after seeking the permission of individual
household members. Where the community refused to participate in the survey, such as the Latif
Compound, the choice of the community was respected. Similarly, in Maharashtra Nagar-Patra chawl
all the households of the community wanted to be interviewed and thus the plan of gathering data from
a sample was abandoned and the wishes of the community were respected.

My MA thesis focused on the NGOs influencing the politics of administrative decentralization and
ward committees, and I used it as a starting point for my PhD research. However, this time my interest

35
was to study policy influencing processes, focusing more specifically on the engagement of the private
sector with government. Whereas in my MA I looked at public policy processes (decentralization), I
could not examine the outcomes of the policies because they had only recently begun to be
implemented. However, the wish to study policy outcomes was now given more priority. These two
factor—the importance of studying policy outcomes and the decision to focus on market-state
relations—led me to focus on land regulation regimes. Mumbai was a natural choice given these
parameters; the city was a pioneer in implementing such market instruments, and I have been working
and living in the city for the past 20 years.

3.2 OUTLINING SPECIFIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In chapter 2 I presented the actor-oriented perspective to studying urban intervention. I decided to

apply the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) approach, developed by Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith,
as a theoretical framework for answering the specific research questions raised in chapter 1. In this
section I will assess the ACF’s ability to answer the research questions, and propose some
modifications to the framework to make it more applicable to my case study.

The first research question deals with the ’who of policy change’, specifically asking: who are the
actors engaged in the policymaking process and what are their interests, resources and constraints? To
answer this question the author needs to study historical factors. The ACF has termed them as ‘relative
stable parameters’. Relatively stable parameters are stable over a long period of time, because they
restrict the nature of the problem, constrain the resources available to policy participants, establish
rules and procedures for changing policy and reaching collective decisions and broadly form the
values that inform policymaking. Because of their resistance to change the relatively stable parameters
are usually not strategically targeted by policy participants.

A combination of stable parameters, actors, their resources and networks influence the conditions for
policy change. The relatively stable parameters frame the policy-making process for a policy
subsystem with its territorial boundaries, (for instance greater Mumbai). The political boundaries of
such a policy process are determined by the hundreds of policy participants from all levels of
government, and the multiple interest groups from different sectors which influence the rules of the
development plan. Their aim is to influence policy subsystems to effectively achieve their objectives
and maintain their participation over ensure changes are translated into policy outcomes (see figure
3.1).

Thus to answer the first research question four subsets of the framework are used. First, external
system or events are considered, referring to changes in socio-economic conditions, in public opinion,
changes in governing coalition and policy decisions and impacts (these changes are not limited to the
urban sector but may be broader shifts at the national political economy). Secondly, the contextual
sector parameters are examined, including i) the structure of the state (in the case of Mumbai meaning
local, state and central governments interventions in urban development); ii) inequality in land, habitat
and public amenities; iii) the constitutional and legal framework governing the urban sector; iv) the
democratic structure; and v) electoral geography.The third factor which needs to be studied is the
degree of consensus needed to bring about a change in the development plan of the city. A number of
actors have been included in the study and these include consensual actors as well as those who were
excluded from the policy making process. An event analysis approach has been used to identify
consensual actors; the tools for collecting this data were predominantly secondary sources,
complemented by the use of case studies of New Planning Instruments (NPIs) project communities.
This approach has also been called the bottom-up approach of identify consensus. The fourth factor
that helps answer the first question concerns the constraints and resources of the actors and
organizations.

The second research question deals with the actions and the goals of the actors; it examines ‘what and
where actors act’ and ‘what is it that they are want to change’. The question is: What strategies and
arenas are used by the actors and their coalitions to influence the decision-making process; what is the

36
role played by government in resolving conflicts? To answer this question I will draws from another
subset of the ACF framework—the subset dealing with policy subsystems. ACF assumes that only
advocacy coalitions would form to influence government decision. However, other studies have found
that networks and interest groups also influence actors. Thus, for this study, advocacy coalitions are
taken to mean policy networks across sectors, which are able to achieve to transfer policy core beliefs
into actual policy. Policy participants (1) share similar policy core beliefs and (2) engage in non-trivial
degrees of co-ordination.

The nature of networks that actors create, what is transacted, and how they change over time are
theoretical questions of interest. Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith use only two criteria to describe a
coalition; common beliefs and non-trivial engagement. This appears rather general and does not
clearly distinguish between a network, a coalition or an alliance. These definitions need to be
examined more closely.

In discussing common beliefs, according to North, major institutional change will come about only
when it is in the interest of those with sufficient bargaining strength to alter formal rules (North 1990).
To gain bargaining strength in an environment of fragmented power requires some kind of
collaboration amongst actors. Regime analysis views the power of institutions as fragmented and
regimes as the collaborative arrangements through which local governments and private actors
assemble the capacity to govern. The primary reason for the fragmentation of power is the division of
labour between market and state. Both local government and businesses possess resources needed for
governing, for example, government enjoys legitimacy and policymaking authority, while the business
sector has the capital that generates jobs, tax revenues and financing. Therefore they insist that co-
creation is a necessity, not an aberration.

Further, authors have different viewpoints on what kind of collaboration takes shape amongst actors in
the urban scenario and which of this are urban regime collaborations. Urban regimes are not simply
networks or inter-organizational collaborations. The engagement of non-state actors is one of the main
conditions. Urban regimes are not simply ’urban governance’ (Pierre and Peters 2000). It is a broader
concept that expresses the need for collaboration beyond the confines of the city hall, specifically the
need for more active participation by business actors. Discussing the difference between the two
concepts, Stone emphasized that private sector engagement is essential for the functioning of any
regime (Stone 1989).

Also the presence of active interest groups and the role they play is examined: How active are they in
lobbying and building pressure to influence the process of rule-making? Empirical studies by Evans
have showed that the embeddedness of private actors can result in innovative policymaking; he
recommends a balance between the two variables of closeness and distance between the private and
public sector. Evans assumes that private and public sector are two different entities; however, he
assumes that the sectors are autonomous, whereas overlap between the two sectors also needs to be
considered.

Answering questions about the spaces actors and their networks choose to act in—also called ‘spaces
of interface and encounter’ by Long (2001)—Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith use the term ‘venues’.
According to them, Venues mean political arenas where coalition members have opportunities to
influence the belief of policy stakeholders. Coalitions are known to spend considerable amount of time
venue shopping, i.e. looking for an arena where they might have a competitive advantage. They often
launch initiatives in several venues simultaneously. In my experience working in India, valuable
sought after venues include print media, the state assembly, the courts and the streets as a place of
protest. Informal arenas which are hidden from public view also need to be included. What factors
lead to selecting one arena over another? What the limitations and scope of each of these areas? Are
some inherently more open to one specific type of coalition? Are these venues themselves undergoing
change? These are some questions which need further examination.

37
The role of the state as predicted by the framework is that of policy broker and mediator (resolving
policy disagreements and seeking to find a compromise between hostile coalitions). Policy
disagreements are known to escalate into political problems. ACF also recognizes that it is possible to
have a stalemate between coalition members where the political participants consider the status quo
unacceptable and perceive no alternative venues of archiving their objectives. ACF identifies
politicians or government officers as two possible brokers. It views them as neutral actors, without
direct interest in the policy outcomes. This leaves no room to examine what happens to those actors
who may not be active but are in some way or the other impacted by the public policy. What coalitions
would like to influence or change may boil down to institutional rules, regulations, resource allocation
and appointments, and decisions made to shape policy process and its outcomes.

Figure 3.1 Conceptual framework of advocacy coalitions

Degree of Consensus
need for Policy Change
1. Content of the policy Policy Brokers
2. Scale of its application
Contextual / sector Parameters 3. The Justice Model
1. Structure of state of the policy
2. Inequality in land 4. Structure its application
habitat and public amenities – complexity
3. Constitutional and legal framework 5. Constrains- style formal Policy Subsystem Policy Subsystem
4. Democratic Structure and informal
5. Electoral Geography 6. Structural and ideological
Coalition A Coalition B
Factors -Policy belief Decision of -Policy belief
7. Procedural aspects the Government
-Resources -Resources
Strategy A Strategy B
Constrains and Resources
of the sub-system of
Actors and organizations
1. Role and presence of
existing formal
External (system – events) & informal network
1. Change in socio-economic conditions 2. Presence of space for
Institution
2. Change in public opinion innovation
-rules
3. Change in systemic governing coalitions 3. Role of Public Concern
-regulations
4. Policy decisions and impacts 4. Negotiations amongst
-allocation of
actors on different policies
resources
5. Who is included who
& appointments
Is excluded- “framing”
Change in Urban
land regulation
regime ?

Policy Output and Impact

-Equality of land cost Policy
-Security of tenure of land for Implementation
the squatter population. 1. Who is included who
Is excluded . “framing”
2 Structural and ideological
Factors
3. Procedural aspects

The third sub-question deals with the content of the change in rules governing development of land in
Mumbai—i.e. the actual design of the TDR and AR instruments. This question concerns outputs and
outcomes of the changed rules: What are the policy outputs and outcomes of the process of multi-actor
influence?

The ultimate test of any policy is its impact. Measuring what policies can achieve can be done rather
simplistically by measuring the quantitative outputs of amenities that the policy is able to deliver. To
assess the quantity of the New Planning Instruments, several variables will be used: quantity of plots
acquired, existence of a usable amenity on site, access to public amenity, land sharing amongst
stakeholders and ownership of amenity.

Changes in the rules governing the development of land as a result of influence of various actors can
only be tested against the earlier rules; therefore, it is essential to compare NPIs with traditional
planning instruments in terms of content. Further, it is also important to compare the impact both new
and old instruments in terms of the quantum of land that the rules were able to deliver for public

38
amenities. The type of amenities and geographic location where they were constructed and the actual
availability of a public amenity on the site need to be studied.

Another way to assess the output of the liberalized development rules would be to examine whether
the land sharing mechanism inherent in NPI has worked out as per the new rules. Its ownership and
access to public need also to be examined. Some economists have also warned about the negative
outcomes of using market based instruments (presented in the last chapter). It would also be
interesting to see the impacts of NPIs on city space.

The fourth research question also deals with outcomes but more specifically vis–à-vis squatter
communities. The question is: Do NPIs reach out to the squatter communities and contribute to
improving their living conditions? To answer this question we depend on the livelihood literature,
which studies households and communities. This study will focus on the delivery aspect of public
amenities, that is, whether the provider (government, private or NGO) is able to deliver the amenities
in such a form that all sections of society find it accessible. Or, alternatively, is the amenity provided
under conditions that are difficult to meet for a certain section of the society, and, therefore they are
excluded or are denied the status of users of the amenity.

The academic literature published by the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP)
(Virtanen and van 't Verlaat 1998) suggests that equality as a goal needs to be broken down into
equality among citizens living in similar urban areas, recommending various possible criteria to assess
equality amongst citizens. However, for this study I will only use four indicators to assess whether the
core value of urban planning—i.e. urban equality—has been achieved with the introduction of NPIs.
The first three are well-known criteria recommended by IFHP: (1) security of tenure for the squatter
population, (2) access and use rights of squatter populations to public amenities, and (3) improvements
in living conditions of squatter households and communities. The author proposes another criterion
which has gained much discussion in academic literature recently—community cohesion. Cohesion or
solidarity of a community is difficult to assess using empirical means. One aspect of cohesion is living
together as one unit or sharing a common identity based on place of residence. This can be assessed by
the location of the members as well as shared collective resources, for example community
organizations. While data for some of the above criteria of assessment of impact and outcome on the
community can be gathered via interviews with leaders, data for other criteria needs to be compiled by
interviewing households that together make up the community.

Living Conditions of households

Rakodi introduced many indicators to assess household assets—such as human, social political,
physical, financial and natural capital—with indicators within each category (Rakodi and Lloyd-Jones
2002). As the key question of this the study is assessing what section of the community has benefited
from the NPIs and how living conditions have improved, I will gather information only on physical,
social and political capital, as these are likely to be impacted by the NPIs.

Physical capital is generally understood to mean basic infrastructure (transport, shelter, water, energy,
and communications) and the production equipment and means which enable people to pursue their
livelihoods. However, within the physical capital there are a wide number of indicators. Some physical
capital is acquired by household for their private use, such as the amenities that are connected with the
home (e.g., water, electricity, toilet, the material the house is made of, and the area available for the
household). On the other hand, there are the collective amenities shared by all the households living in
a particular geographical area, such as a kindergarten (Anganwadi), collection service for the solid
waste or a welfare centre. Still others amenities are utilized at the neighbourhood level (e.g., a primary
school, a health centre or a playground).

Social and political capital include social resources (networks, membership of groups, relationships of
trust and reciprocity, access to wider institutions of society) on which people draw in pursuit of
livelihoods. For a household living in a slum, memberships in a specific geographic community or

39
belonging to some form of collective provides a conduit for obtaining access to shared facilities (such
as common water taps, solid waste collection, land tenure and protection against evictions, i.e. housing
security). Similarly the capacity of the communal leaders to link with other communities, to form a
larger collective, or with government, NGO or service brokers is an important resource in improving
living conditions and livelihood. Thus, both intra-community and intercommunity networks and
memberships of groups will be covered in this research.

Similarly, exercising political rights such as the right to vote, is only possible if the resident is
included in the electoral role. Accessing services which are provided by the state (such as PDS),
transforms an ordinary resident into a citizen who can exercise his veto and voice.

The concepts and indicators used to assess improvements in living conditions in this study have been
operationalized in the following manner (see table 3.1).

Table 3.1: Concepts and indicators for assessing improvement in living condition

Concepts Indicators Measurements

Indoor running water Y/N
Indoor electricity Y/N – legal, illegal
Indoor toilet Y/N
House structure Kutcha, pukka, apartment
Physical capital- House space Actual, mazenine or not
Personal capital Pavement, slum, recognized slum, transit,
Type rehab
Own /tenant
Security of tenure Y/N
Protection against evictions Y/N
Anganwadi Y/N
Physical capital-
Solid waste collection Y/N
Community
Drains Y/N
amenities
Welfare centre Y/N
Physical capital- School Y/N
Neighborhood Medical centre Y/N
amenities Playing ground Y/N
Household membership of
Y/N
community organization
Social Capital
Household access to collective
Y/N
community improvement efforts
Voting rights—name on voting list? Y/N
Political Capital
Ration card for household? Y/N

Impact of NPIs on project communities will be assessed by using two variables: one that assesses the
access to collective amenities by the entire geographical community, and another that measures the
access to private amenities by households. The data will be collected at household level as well as
thorough focus groups. In the next section a detailed plan on sources and tools is presented.

3.3 DATA SOURCES AND TOOLS

Primary Data

Four sources of primary data were used for this study. The first one is interviews of key informants,
who were identified by secondary sources as members of the coalition or as observers of the
policymaking and changing process. Primary data was also gathered on the changed use of land plots
developed using the TDR-AR and de-reservation mechanisms. Third, primary data was collected
through interviews and fieldwork with three communities selected as case studies. The fourth source
of primary data is a combination of a household survey conducted in three case study areas and a

40
survey of the users and residents of a public park that is being privatized, purchased by a member of
the coalition.

A criterion for selecting the plots was developed based on a pilot study of the plots and an analysis of
plots based on their amenity reservation, size and location in terms of wards. To assure
representativeness of the sample, a combination of multiple criteria was developed, including all types
of amenities, all wards and all sizes. Only in the case of de-reservation plots did I limit the scope to M
Ward, because I wanted to understand the reasons that contributed to making this ward a high TDR
generator. The total number of sample site land plots where primary data was collected was 237—well
above the targeted 15% of the total. Nineteen plots could not be located during the field work, so the
total number of surveyed plots was somewhat lower—218. Further, all the selected plots which had
been de-reserved in the policymaking process were selected, based on their location in M Ward. A
questionnaire was developed for collecting response from the users or managers of the amenity. It was
adjoined by an observation sheet, which also had a list of questions addressed to the investigators
(table 3.2).

Table 3.2: Number and types of sites surveyed

Universal Sites surveyed

TDR 1679 96
AR 166 29
In Situ 49 29
De-reservations 1669 64
Total 3563 218

During the fieldwork it was revealed that one of the outputs of each of the projects was four types of
housing settlements: (1) rehabilitation housing, usually formal and permanent; (2) transit housing,
formal but temporary; (3) housing of excluded groups, informal and temporary; and (4) the sale
components of the project, formal and permanent as well as placed at a higher land price within the
project.

While on one hand MBI instruments created formal housing for some, they kept others in what
appeared to be poorly equipped housing. To study the impact of MBI on different sections of slum
dwellers, data was collected from all three ‘outcome’ sub-communities of the project (rehabilitation,
transit and excluded households), in proportion to the total sub-community which still existed on or
neighboring the project or resettlement site. Around 800 households were interviewed from three
project sites: Roma Banjara, Lallu Bhai compound and Fulanchiwadi. Also, 54 users and households
were interviewed about their opinion on the redevelopment of the Vaidya Maidan at Bandra.

Secondary Sources

Secondary data sources include municipal reports, debates in the state assembly, newspaper reports,
articles in magazines, web pages of companies and their organizations, published reports of companies,
and petitions and court case judgments. I would like to mention two court cases that were particularly
helpful in providing data that would have been otherwise difficult to access. One is a court case filed
by a political and housing right activist, the late Baburao Samant, urging the government to acquire
private lands under the Urban Land Ceiling Act. The government’s reply to this petition gives details
of all the private landowners and the location and size of land declared surplus. The other is a court
case filed by Citispace urging the government to review the AR/In-situ projects. The government reply
to this case brought to light the location and developer details of these plots.

One of the most helpful secondary sources of data, which was used to explain the location choice of
amenity planning under the new mechanisms, is the Ready Reckoner of Stamp Duty. The Ready

41
Reckoner published yearly gives the official price of properties in Mumbai. It draws its information
from the sale of properties registered with the Collector of Mumbai.

The assembly report—which gave the details regarding the number of land plots de-reserved, both by
the local and state government in the period 1983-89—bridged a huge gap that the newspaper articles
could not have filled. Many of the reports and contracts amongst government departments, such as the
Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM), conditions and deadlines were sought by filing
for specific information under the Right To Information Act.

Table 3.3: Specific research questions and data sources

Question Data sources Data collection tools

1. Who are the other actors
- Newspaper articles, government
engaged in the processes of
reports, court cases, state Secondary
policymaking and what are
government assembly
their interests, resources and
proceedings
constraints?
Primary (questionnaire)
- Interviews with actors
2. What strategies and arenas
are used by the actors and their - Newspaper articles, government
coalitions to influence the reports, court cases, state Secondary
decision-making processes? government assembly
What are the continuities and proceedings
changes in actors, strategies Primary (questionnaire)
and arenas? - Interviews with actors

- Data from survey of amenities

3. What are the policy outputs,
developed using NPIs
policy impacts and policy
Primary (questionnaire)
outcomes of the new regime on
- Data from survey of amenities
urban space?
developed using market based
instruments
4. What are the policy
- Household survey data of case
outcomes and impacts of the
studies, covering included, in Primary (questionnaire)
new regime on inequalities
transit and excluded groups in
among urban residents?
Roma Banjara, Lallu Bhai and
Fulanchiwadi.

3.4 SAMPLE CHOICES, METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL TOOLS

The specificities regarding the reservation/zoning direct the selection of a particular mechanism. For
example, if the reservation is for medical or educational facilities, the preferred mechanism is AR; if
the reservation is for open spaces or public housing, then the preferred mechanism is TDR.
Furthermore, if at a later stage an internal comparison between the AR and TDR instrument needs to
be made, it is important to have a proportional sample size (see figure 3.2).

During the data collection process, another database was uncovered—projects developed using a
version of the AR instrument, which in the municipal parlance are called ‘In-situ developments’. This
database was not part of the municipal database, because the High Court of Mumbai had passed a stay
order in a case filed by citizens groups protesting against this instrument. The MCGM had submitted a
list of 49 plots developed under AR/In-situ projects; of which 29 sites were surveyed using the same
criteria mentioned above.

42
Figure 3.2: Selection Process of sample size and case study

Universe Plots of Land Acquired under the LAA by MCGM and

State Government

Universe of plots de-reserved during the sanctioning of the Secondary Data

revised development plan (1983-1991) 1380 + 289 plots in
Mumbai
Vasai Virar Region

Universe of plots Developed using TDR/ AR/ 1679 under TDR (table 3.5)
Insitu 166 under AR
49 under Insitu

Selection of Sample plots developed for Public

Amenities and SRA/PAP Housing for conducting 96 under TDR, 29 under AR
a survey 29 under Insitu ( table 3.3)

64 de-reserved plots
Selection of all M-Ward de-reserved plots for study
surveyed in M-Ward

Selection of Case Study from M-Ward 4 case studies, Fulanchiwadi,

And LAA case study from G-Ward Roma BanjaraTandav and
the Elphistone community (M
Ward) Latif Compound ( G
Ward)
Sample households selected in case
study communities for undertaking
household impact survey Household Survey of 840
(case study communities of M
Ward only table 3.7)

The selection of the wards where the fieldwork was conducted took place based on the criteria that all
types of amenities were listed in these wards (as per municipal records); this was done to save
resources. Using this criterion, the following wards were selected for further study: N, L, P (north), T,
R, M (east) and F (south). As per the MCGM database, 166 plots were developed under AR and 1,679
under TDR (see table 3.5) from 1995 to April 2006, bringing the total number of developed plots
under these mechanisms to 1,845. As selection for open spaces and public housing still had to be made
from a large number of plots, the selection was based on those plots with the largest percentage of
built-up area, ensuring that the majority of types of amenities are represented (see table 3.2).

43
Figure 3.3: Administrative Ward Map of Mumbai

Source: MCGM map of administrative wards (n.d).

44
Figure 3.4: Map of M/East Ward

Source: MCGM (2002)

Table 3.4: TDR plots acquired from 1997- 2005 and their use

In square
TDR Plots/Projects
metres
Reservation places (ground, gardens,
560 2,277,839
school, public housing, R & R, etc.)
Roads 500 796,585
Slum Development Project 615 3,549,332
Heritage 3 1,002
D.C.R. 1991 33/7 under TDR 1 1,800
Total 1,679 6,626,559

Source: MCGM TDR Data Base (2005)

45
Selection of case studies was done by choosing those plots from the database that were directly
impacted by both the old and new regime. This selection included plots de-reserved or acquired under
the old regime and currently under development or had undergone development using the MBI under
the new regime. Using a random selection process (with the help of SPSS) a 15% sample of these
plots was chosen, and a field survey was conducted of the plots by visiting these locations to
determine the current state of affairs. The in-depth case studies were selected from this set of surveyed
plots. The rationale for selecting case studies is given below in table 3.6.

The following four amenities were selected for the study: Open Spaces, Schools, Public Housing and
Health Amenities. 9 The category of ‘schools’ includes primary and secondary schools as well as
schools for children with special needs. The category of ‘health amenities’ includes hospitals,
maternity homes and dispensaries. The fourth category—‘public housing’—includes projects
developed under Slum Redevelopment Assistance (SRA), Housing for Project Affected Persons
(affected because they are relocated due to projects such as Mumbai Urban Transport Project [MUTP],
Mumbai Infrastructure Project and others) and old chawl redevelopment (even though it falls under
state government competence, it was one of the highest TDR generators and therefore could not be
overlooked—see table 3.5).

3.5 RATIONALE FOR CHOOSING AREAS FOR IN-DEPTH CASE STUDIES

The first set of output of the secondary TDR data showed certain built-in preferences of builders for
particular wards in which to locate amenities. Much of the Slum Redevelopment TDR featured in M
Ward (see table 3.5). Further, M Ward had the largest concentration of households facing combined
deprivations (cf. Baud et al. 2009). These features of M Ward influenced its selection as the main ward
from which to select the in-depth case studies.
Table 3.5: Chart showing TDRs generated in all wards of Mumbai

Ward Variations in TDR Amenities

TDR in square meters

2500000

2000000
Public housing BUA
1500000 Opens Spaces
1000000 Schools BUA
Medical BUA
500000

0
A B E F F (north) M (east) L H (west) K (west) P(north) T R (north)
(south)
Wards

Fulanchiwadi is situated in M Ward and is a settlement of several thousand households. It was chosen
for in-depth study as it was listed as a plot which was acquired by the government for housing
purposes, and it appeared that the MBI had succeeded in this case. The architect who was involved
with the de-reservation from the side of the landowner was willing to take part in the study.

Roma Banjara popped up during the study of In-situ projects in M Ward. This project was selected as
it was still incomplete and had all the various features of a project alive, the transit camp, the excluded
families and the rehabilitated families. Also, as the majority of the residents belong to the same tribe—
Lamani—intra-community comparison is easier. Further, Roma Banjara was one of the earliest
projects with both resettlement as well as high-rise rehabilitation element.

Lallu Bhai compound PAP Township was selected because it was one of the largest townships in M
Ward. Household data was only collected from the Elphinstone community, which was selected based
on the relationship that the researcher had established with the community during her field work.

9
All gardens, parks, playgrounds and amusement parks were categorized as open spaces.

46
Mohammad Latif compound was recommended by a senior planner of the municipal corporation as
a case to study the implementation of the Land Acquisition Act. It is located in south Mumbai in the G
South Ward. There were three reasons why this case study was selected: (1) it provided the
opportunity to study redevelopment of an old chawl through MBI; (2) the case provided opportunity to
study the impact of GBI and MBI on the same plot; and, most importantly, (3) the key actors, the
landowner and the government authorities showed willingness to participate in the study.

The household data was collected using a questionnaire to gather information on the socio-economic
status of the household as well as the household’s access to public amenities and their perception and
participation in the redevelopment projects. During the earlier period of data collection, the researcher
had recognized that during the course of implementing redevelopment-resettlement project (projects
utilizing one of the other MBI) the community had splintered into smaller groups which were often
dispersed into different settlements, some recognized, and others not. Further, some households
because of their ‘non-eligibility’ had been relocated to a different location. These settlements were
also included as community households and included in the study. The selection of households was
done using a process of mapping, numbering and then random selection with the objective of
collecting data from a reasonable sample size, varying from 10% to 50%.

In Maharashtra Nagar, a sub-settlement of currently excluded community, the sampling process

failed as the community insisted that everyone be covered. The members of this settlement viewed the
survey itself as an act of recognition of their community.

Table 3.6: Number of household interviews in the case study area

Settlements -
Number of
with total
Case study communities households Mode of sample selection
number of
interviewed
households
Both these sub-settlements are divided into 18
Fulanchiwadi Mukti Nagar (325
chawl committees which roughly cover about 30
tenements) 110
tenements in one lane. Every third or fourth
(LBI-land acquisition/ de-
tenement was selected for data collection. If the
reservation. MBI- AFR Kashinath Patil
tenement had a mezzanine and a different
under SRA) Wadi 110
household was found to occupy it, they were
(700 tenements)
treated as a separate household and interviewed.
Lallu Bhai compound

(building 19A, 19 B
The Elphinstone community has been resettled
resettled from Elphinstone
over two buildings; each building has 7 floors
Rd pavement) 100
with 12 units in each. Data was gathered from
residents of five units per floor.
MUTP- PAP
(LMI-ULCRA. MBI –
TDR)
Recognized transit
camps for MUTP
200
- 138 A
(100 per Mapping, numbering and lane zigzag selection.
(300 tenements)
transit camp)
- 138 B
(170 tenements)
Tolerated transit
camp
Maharashtra
120 Every household demanded to be interviewed.
Nagar Patra
Chawl
(120 tenements)

47
 Roma Banjara Rahul Nagar- 50 Whichever family was available during data
excluded collection
(de-reservation to AR community
with In-situ) (100 tenements)

Recognized transit 50 Whichever family was available during the data

camps collection period
(70 tenements)

Resettled 100 Seven buildings, each building has 64 flats each

households floor 8 flats, one household was interviewed
(448) from each floor. A zigzag pattern was selected;
on each floor the position of the flat was
different.
Total number of
840
households

Source: Authors survey, 2007-2008

Analytical methods

The final analytical process has used inductive methods such as factoring, marking of factors, pattern
reading and developing relationships between variables. All answered interview questionnaires were
coded and entered into SPSS. The database received from the MCGM on the TDR and AR
developments were all hard copies. They were turned into Excel files, which made calculation and
analysis easier. MapInfo has been used to analyze data spatially and has been extensively used to
understand and explain spatial implications, the externalities and polarities of the privatization of
planning.

3.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Land use and development patterns in Mumbai make a checkered pattern—there are various types of
landowners and tenancy rights, with different sets of rules and regulations. This makes the study of
land regimes and policymaking a very demanding and difficult task. What this study aims to do is lift
this blanket which surrounds land making policy layer by layer, such that the actors and their process
can be understood by all.

As the land policy itself is dependent on land ownership the researcher shall only be able to study
some sections of the city and land policies. Due to time and space constraints, other areas, such as the
mill lands, old dilapidated buildings, villages, or the Special Economic Zones have not been studied—
this is the limitation of the study. This study, however, does present a hypothesis on policymaking
processes and actors that could be tested for other rules and rulemaking processes within Mumbai and
other urban areas of India. One of the limitations of my MA research was its shortcoming in studying
the outcome of the policy implementation; this limitation has been overcome in this study. However,
given the clear-boundedness of the study, the researcher could not study the other changes in the
developmental control rules which also took place during the same period (e.g. regarding the mill
lands).

48
CHAPTER 4: DESIGNING BOMBAY: AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

The chapter intends to give the background and context of the study by exploring the Bombay’s
spatial growth, from colonial rule to its post-independence development as Mumbai. In its early
history, Bombay was subject of a dispute between the Portuguese and British colonial authorities. It
was finally transferred as property gift to the British Crown, who in turn leased it out to the East India
Company. Section 4.1 explores the economic and political history of Mumbai, both under colonial rule
and during the post-independence era. The aim of this chapter is to understand how these two different
national regimes, the East India Company and the Republic of India, manipulated urban space to
achieve their goals. Continuations and changes in national regime practices are identified along with
their impact on human settlements and the spatial patterns created in the process.

Section 4.2 looks at the ‘resident patterns’ in the city, tracing the settlement and creation of
geographical neighbourhoods in the city based on class and social groups. The section first looks at the
changing city limits from the colonial times to the present and then further examines the ways
migrants to the city found or built housing and their neighbourhood environment as well as the
associated issue of land value. Section 4.3 relates the typology of housing that was provided and
created by the various classes of the city. Section 4.4 looks at land ownership records and use of land,
from colonial rule to today.

4.1 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY

Colonial rule and expansion

Unlike other Indian cities—which grew around sacred sites or trading routes—Bombay was a colonial
creation built by the British to serve British mercantile interests. Named after the Mumba Devi
goddess, who was called Bom Bahia by the Portuguese sailors, the Island City had come into
Portuguese possession after a treaty in 1534, given by the Gujarat Sultanate. By 1652, the British had
started to pressure the East India Trading Company to buy the city from the Portuguese. The British
had been eyeing the city as a strategic base point in face of the growing strength of their chief colonial
rival—the Dutch.

The city came under British colonial rule when it was given as a part of the dowry as per the marriage
treaty of 1661 between Catherine Braganza, daughter King John IV of Portugal, and Charles II of
England. Despite this treaty, the British and the Portuguese continued to squabble over ownership
rights.

Bombay finally came under British rule in 1664 after lengthy negotiations. It took another two years to
gain control of Mahim, Sion, Dharavi, and Wadala 10. By 1668, Charles II leased out Bombay to the
East India Company for an annual fee of £10 in gold. In 1687, the city became the headquarters of the
East India Company. The Portuguese still retained control over Salsette and Bassein for some time,
until the Marathas captured them (Salsette in 1737 and Bassein in 1739). These areas in turn came
under British control in 1782 following the First Anglo-Maratha War .

Over the next one hundred years, the East India Company developed into a political powerhouse
throughout the Indian sub-continent with Bombay as its economic seat of power. By the nineteenth
century, the flourishing cotton trade in the city had transformed it from a trading outpost to a
manufacturing and financial hub. Well connected to the English market and other markets in Asia and
Europe, the city was the gateway and chief trading hub of India. The migrants who came into the city
were offered employment opportunities by the English as educated clerks, whereas the merchant and
business communities also employed skilled artisans – weavers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, tanners, and
10
These were fishing and farming villages.

49
the labourers. The migrants arrived from the famine-ridden agricultural areas of the Konkan region
and Andhra Pradesh, while the merchants arrived from Saurashtra and Kutch.

By the mid-nineteenth century Bombay had begun to evolve from a mercantile community into an
industrial city. The first cotton mills were established by the British in 1820, and the first Indian mill–
Coswasji Davars Oriental Spinning—was established in 1854. Many of the affluent traders were
setting up indigenous cotton mills, quickly increasing from 32 mills (with over 30,000 workers) in
1880 to 83 mills by 1890.

In 1842, the opening of China by the British introduced a new, huge market for Bombay mill owners.
Unable to compete successfully with British (Lancashire) manufactures in yarn and cloth on the
domestic market, they could turn their attention to and exploit the new market in China. Cotton trade
to China was steadily increasing, by 1873 absorbing 80% of Bombay’s yarn production. The Chinese
market was also the recipient of the opium trade from Bombay 11 (Dossal 1995)(in Thorner and Patel,
1995). By the end of 1864, Bombay’s population had grown to 816,562. In 1875, the first stock
exchange in India was established in Bombay.

Between 1900 to 1925 153,000 workers were employed in the textile industry. The Swadeshi
movement (1904-1907) increased the indigenous cotton mills share in the domestic market. By 1913,
Bombay’s share in cotton textile mills in India was only 31%, but it had 44% of the spindles and 47%
of the looms in the country. Bombay employed 42% of the 250,000 mill workers in the Indian cotton
industry.

Between 1897 and 1906, industrialization greatly intensified, recording a 36.8% increase in capital
investment in companies registered in India. Indian capitalists dominated in the textile industry, and
Bombay was host to the rising entrepreneurial class in the Indian subcontinent. The Tata family was
responsible for erecting the first modern steel production plant in 1913, while the automobile and
aeronautics industry began with the efforts of Bombay-based Walchand Hirachand. By the 1930s, the
largest business house in the city was owned by the Tata family. Keeping to the tradition of joint
family system in India which operated in the agricultural sector, where land ownership, its cultivation
and habitation are collectively exercised by families or large clans kitted together by blood relation a
similar pattern took shape in urban areas vis-à-vis commercial activity. Such family owned business is
called a business house; the Tata’s is one such business house.

Industrialization of the city created of two distinct economic classes, which were instrumental in
shaping the political economy of the city that time (and still are key movers). Large landowners and
business houses were interested in expanding their control over land and commerce. Their efforts were
curtailed by the colonial regime of British East India Company. It was to satisfy their own business
interests that the business class played a leading role in supporting the nationalist movement. 12 In
1927, the first association of the Indian business class was founded—the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). In 1928, President Purushottam Thakurdas firmly
stated FICCI’s nationalist affiliations and openly declared the need to link associations of commerce
and industry to the nation’s struggles to be free from British rule, by stating that politics could no
longer be separated from economic interests.

11
Between 1830-33 and 1860-61, the value of merchandise exports from Bombay increased sixfold, while value of opium
sales alone increased more than tenfold C. Markovits, "Bombay as a Business Centre in the Colonial Period: A Comparison
with Calcutta," in Bombay: Metaphor for Modern India, eds. S. Patel and A. Thorner (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1995), 26-47.

12
In 1885, the first conference to form the Indian National Congress was held in Bombay.

50
At the same time, the working class in Bombay was also transforming. In 1890, the Bombay Mill and
Millhands Association was founded by Narayan Meghajee Lokhanday. Even though it was more
altruistic in ideology, it was one of the first instances of the working class transforming into an
organized labour force. Over the years the workers organized themselves into a political force. In
1920, the All India Trade Union Committee was formed, with Lokmanya Tilak as one of the leaders.
In November 1921, in response to the INC’ call to boycott the occasion of the visit of Prince of Wales,
the textile factories were shut down with nearly 140,000 workers come out on the streets of Bombay
in protest. In February 1930, as a part of the Civil Disobedience Movement, 20,000 workers (mostly
from GIP Railway Union) stopped working and on April 6, the GIP Railway Union workers launched
a satyagraha by blocking railway tracks. On July 6, following mass arrests of freedom movement
leaders, workers in 49 factories went on strike. The action of 90,000 workers in Bombay on 2 October
1939 was among the first large anti-war strikes. The year 1946 saw the historic mutiny of Bombay
workers as between 200,000 to 300,000 workers took to the street in peaceful demonstrations. They
rapidly turned violent when the British police intervened, and, following an army intervention, 250
workers were killed.

The capitalist national class was however not in favour of supporting the worker’s calls for reform.
One of the reasons for this reluctance was to avoid fragmentation of Indians along class lines and thus
weaken the nationalist movement. Dadabhai Naoraji, in the second session of the Indian National
Congress (INC) in 1886, said, ‘The Congress must confine itself to questions in which the entire
nation has a direct participation and it must leave the adjustment of social reforms and other class
questions to class congresses’ (Mukherjee 1988, 211) .

The nationalists also contended that it was the increased competition faced by the British from the
rising Indian industrialists that prompted the Factories Acts of 1881 and 1891(formulated by the
British). Their regulation of working hours was seen by the Indian industrialists as detrimental to the
competitive edge enjoyed by Indian industry. The capitalist class saw industrialization as a means for
India’s economic development (Mukherjee 1988).

Post-independence period

The first early Five-Year Plans focused on promoting a wide range of industries—especially
engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals in and around Bombay. Ancillary industries (such as
chemicals, dyes, engineering workshops, other factories) did develop, but it was the textile industry
that was the mainstay of the city.

During British rule, the port and related services were situated in the south-eastern side of the island.
In the late 50s, Powai was taken over by engineering and chemical units (due to its accessibility);
Trombay in the north eastern M ward attracted large scale state-owned companies in the fertilizer and
petroleum sectors. The other emerging suburbs in the north-eastern part of the city saw the setting up
of engineering, chemicals and pharmaceuticals factories, mainly along the suburban route of the
Central Railway between the Agra Road (now Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg) and the Central Railway and
in areas such as Kurla and the eastern part of Andheri. With the setting up of Premier Automobiles in
this area, Kurla turned into an automotive industrial zone.

In the first two decades of independence, Bombay witnessed a significant shift in the structure of the
textile industry. Under-utilized production capacities, poor market consumption and outdated
technology resulted in a shift to capital-intensive industry and a fragmentation of the textile mills into
handlooms, powerlooms and mills. The fragmentation also resulted in decentralization of the industry,
with the share of the unorganized sector increasing and moving from Bombay city to the outskirts,
such as Bhiwandi and Malegaon, in 1980s, supported by the growing power loom sector of the
industry. Top business houses like the Tatas, Singhania, Mafatlal and Birlas remained in business. The
textile strike of the 1980s, ended in closure of several mills, with over 100,000 workers losing their
jobs. Many of these workers were absorbed in the growing informal labour sector in the city. These

51
decades also witnessed the dilution of the political strength of the working class by the growing
unorganized labour sector (Wersch 1992; Adarkar 2008).

The shift from production to services happened slowly through several decades, as manufacturing
units moved out of the city limits. The post-1991 period was marked by the final decline of the textile
industry and the growth of the city as the financial capital of the country. The decline and fall of textile
industry; the relocation of pharmaceutical, chemical and engineering industries to the outskirts and
other regions in the state; and the shift towards the service sector is clearly visible in the employment
data. In 1981, industry provided 44% of jobs while the service sector accounted for 54%. The next ten
years saw service sector participation increase to 60%, while industrial employment fell to 39%. By
2001, the tertiary sector accounted for 72% of jobs (Directorate of Economics and Statistics,
Government of Maharashtra, 2006; National Resource Centre for Urban Poverty 2009).

Post-1991 trends show an increased number of jobs offered to skilled and educated workers, while the
others have moved to the informal sector. The fragmented, unorganized working class in the informal
sector had lost out on the gains of development. According to the Planning Commission’s report,
titled, ‘Employment Generation in Post Globalization Era in Greater Mumbai’, globalization,
‘bringing so-called labour flexibility and the international competition through increased emphasis on
reducing labour costs, labour saw the erosion of many benefits. It has led to further segmentation of
the labour market and the expansion of low-income informal sectors in the economy. This process has
been accompanied by increase in actualization, contract labour, subcontracting and lengthening of
working hours’ (Dewan 2000).

Post-independence Bombay witnessed a series of events—largely related to identity politics—that

further strengthened the spatial segregation within the city and further marginalized the urban poor.
Bombay was already fragmented on the basis of linguistic and regional identity, both the Gujarati
community and Maharashtrians fought over control of Bombay during the process of state formation
by the Union. Another chasm was between the natives Marathi speaking population and Hindi-
speaking refugees from Pakistan and North India. Amongst the Marathi speaking population too there
were ethnic tensions between the lower caste or the Dalit populations and the upper caste Hindus or
what is generally termed the Marathas. This is over and above the pre-partition conflicts between a
section of the Muslim and a section of the Hindu community.

Generally, political parties in India represent interests of ethnic, linguistic and regional identities; the
left organized its members class based interests. The dominance of the Indian National Congress
(INC) on the political front as a representative of the middle class, and the strong hold of the leftists
(CPI) on the working class in the 1950s and 1960s were challenged by the emergence of the Shiv
Sena, a political party propagated itself to be defenders of the Marathi speaking population of
Bombay.

In the late 1960s, Shiv Sena launched a campaign calling for ‘Maharashtra for Maharashtrians’,
demanding that all non-Maharashtrians leave Bombay. This attack was aimed predominantly at the
south Indians living in Bombay, slums areas such as Dharavi, where south Indians dominated were
converted into battle grounds 13.

More recently, the Shiv Sena has shifted to virulent anti-Muslim propaganda. The riots and bombings
of 1992-93 and strident rhetoric of the Shiv Sena thoroughly polarized the city along communal lines.
This further strengthened creation of social ghettos and drew clear boundaries between religious group
settlements. The minority Muslims live in constant fear of riots and reprisal from the followers of the
Sena In 1995, the Shiv Sena campaigned fiercely and succeeded in renaming Bombay into Mumbai
(D'Monte 2002).

13
People from Kerala, TN, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

52
4.2. CITY DESIGNS

Designing a Colonial City

Bombay originally consisted of seven islands—Mahim, Parel, Vadala and Sion under the kasba of
Mahim and Mazagaon, Bombaim and Worli under the kasba of Bombaim—together with Bassein (the
north of Mumbai, now called Vasai). In 1782, the Hornby Vellard project, initiated by its governor
who sought to connect the seven islands, joined Bombay to Worli. Massive engineering projects
followed and by mid-nineteenth century the seven islands of Bombay were a single landmass totalling
435 square kilometres.

Socio-spatial segregation of the city is not new to Bombay. Segregation was first put in practice when
the city only measured 18 square miles in the early nineteenth century. The town of Bombay, located
in the southern part of the island, from its very origin, has been divided into two quarters(McFarlane
2008). The Fort or European quarter was separated from the Indian quarter (the old and new ‘Native
Town’), by an open maidan or esplanade. The majority of the city’s population was concentrated here.
The northern parts were primarily populated by farms and saltpans. Reclamation was undertaken in
two areas: one to the east near the harbour, for dock related activities, and on the western shore,
primarily for the needs of the Central Indian Railways.

The fresh money pouring into the city was invested into land reclamation and city improvement. A
report by Sir Edwin Arnold, then Chief Editor of Daily Telegraph, in 1885 testifies how the city
transformed from ‘a town of warehouses and offices’, when he left it nearly twenty years earlier, into
‘a city of parks and palaces’ (Arnold 1886).

The textile industry was located right next to the market area to the north of the docks. Docks and
related activities naturally clumped in the south-eastern part of the city. Textile mills clustered
together along with workers’ homes, amid railway stations. The industrial corridor of the city started
at the centre and then gradually moved up to the eastern part of the city. The southern part of the
island was already developed as the living quarter of the European and Indian upper class.

The British tried various means to bring additional land to the northern suburbs under their control.
Efforts by British officers to undertake survey of lands and record various land tenures and practices
were the means of exercising control over lands which were cultivated by local Indian residents
(figure 4.1).

53
Figure 4.1: Map of Bombay late nineteenth century from Captain Thomas Dickinson’s survey

Source: Dwivedi and Mehrotra (1995)

In 1920, the Salsette taluka of Thane district was divided into North Salsette and South Salsette. South
Salsette taluka (encompassing 86 villages) was separated from Thane district to constitute the newly
created Bombay Suburban District. This district consisted of two talukas—Borivali with 33 villages
and Andheri with 53 villages. In 1945, 33 villages from this district were transferred back to Thane
district. In 1946, 14 of these 33 villages were returned back to Bombay Suburban District for the
development of the Aarey Milk Colony.

Between 1941 and 1951, there was a 66% increase in population (from 1,801,356 in 1941 to 2,894,444
in 1951), attributed to the huge influx of refugees after the Partition. The poorer section of the refugee
population was provided accommodation in temporary structures in recently reclaimed areas at
Chembur (now known as Chembur Sindhi colony), Antop Hill, Chunabhatti, and Koliwada. Those
better off settled in Sion, Mahim, Bandra, Marine Lines and elsewhere.

This increase created unequal densities of population within the city limits already congested by the
existing built-up areas, extending even to the reclaimed marshes and salt pans in Sion and Wadala.
There were only 140 hectares of open space left in the city, which led the government to expand the
city limits. Land was cleared and acquired near Kalyan where a large refugee colony was established

54
in the early 1950s. This colony has evolved over the years into a township, spreading over Ulhasnagar
and Vitthalwadi, now part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Bombay is a city built by migrant labour. The early nineteenth century was a critical period in
Bombay’s history: it grew into an industrial hub with an associated influx of migrants. In 1827, as per
Lieutenant Dickinson’s survey, the population of Bombay numbered 230,000; it increased to 816,000
in 1865 and steadied at 645,000 in 1872 (according to Laughton’s survey).

The growth of the cotton mills and other opportunities drew in large numbers of migrant labourers,
mostly from lower—economic and social—strata of society. These constituted the working class that
was employed in the various factories in the city. At the same time, the city drew in the prosperous
class of merchants and traders mostly belonging to the upper strata of India’s caste system. The
beginnings of the middle class could be traced to those who formed the bulk of service providers—in
low-level administrative positions in the private and government sector.

This was written in the Geography section of Maharashtra State Gazetteers of greater Bombay District
written by Professor B. Arunachalam, Geography Department, University of Bombay. He wrote that
the social affinities of the immigrants’were ‘strongly present in the resident patterns in the city’ and
then quoted Sir Edwin Arnold that ‘the Parsis mostly sought the home of his ancestors in the North
Fort or Dhobi Talao; the Goanese were never absent from Cavel; the Julhai, the silk weaver, sought
Madanpura; the grain merchants were a power in Mandvi; the Bene-Israel owned their Samuel street
and Israel mohalla; the dancing girls drifted to Khetwadi and the 'scarlet woman' to Kamathipura; in
the Null Bazar lived the Sidis; in Parel, Nagpada and Byculla, were mill hands from the Konkan and
labourers from the Deccan; many a Koliwadi from Colaba to Sion sheltered the descendants of the
aboriginal fishing tribes of Bombay; Musalman was a power in Mandvi, Chakla and Umarkhadi; the
Arab haunted Byculla and, in Girgaum, the Brahman made his home.’ (Arunachalam 1986).

By 1890, Tardeo, Parel, Byculla, Tarwadi, Nagpada, and Chinchpokali had expanded into one vast
industrial labourer dwelling quarters. The English had moved into the outlying suburbs of Parel, Lal
Baug, Byculla and Malabar Hill, shared by wealthy Indian merchants such as Wadia, Cama, Jeejebhoy
families. The Fort area had become a business centre.

As per the 1906 census (Gazetteers 14 of the Bombay Presidency), Kumbharwada, Second Nagpada,
Khara Talao, Chakla, Kamathipura, Umarkhadi, and Bhuleshwar, were the most congested areas while
the least congested were Upper Colaba, Fort South, Esplanade, Walkeshwar, Mahalakshmi, Mazagon,
and the four most northern sections. Nagpada, Khara Talao, Umarkhadi and Chakla were chiefly
occupied by Muslims; middle and lower class Parsi families inhabited the northern portion of Dhobi
Talao and the Fort; Upper Colaba and the southern portion of the Fort were the chief European
centres. During the period 1872-1906 there was 51.7% increase in population (mostly in
Mahalakshmi, Byculla, Tarwadi, Parel, Sewri, Sion, Mahim and Worli), connected to the expansion of
the cotton industry in the city 15 (Edwardes, Macnabb Campbell, and The Bombay Presidency 1909).

15
According to the Gazetteer, ‘Subject to these remarks it is impossible to definitely localise any one community, though
certain areas have for many years been regarded as the home of certain distinct classes. Hindu ascetics of all classes, for
example, haunt the neighbourhood of the Walkeshwar and Mahalakshmi temples ; the Goanese and Native Christians are
firmly attached to Cavel, the old home of some of the earliest converts to Roman Catholicism ; the Musalman hand-weavers
known as Julhais or Jolahas congregate in Madanpura between the Rip on and Morland roads; the Bene-Israel who have
given a name to Samuel street and Israel Moholla are more numerous in Mandvi, Umarkhadi, and Dongri than elsewhere;
many dancing-girls reside in Khetwadi, in Foras road and in Falkland road; Parsis and Hindus of the middle-class have of
recent years taken to residing in flats in the western portion of Khetwadi ; in the neighbourhood of the Umarkhadi Jail and
close to Ripon road dwell many Sidis or African Musalmans ; the industrial population is specially numerous in Parel,
Byculla and Nagpada ; and the several Kolivadis of the island from Colaba to Sion shelter the descendants of the aboriginal
colonists of Bombay. The Jams cling to and the Market; Arabs are numerous in Byculla; and in Girgaum are the Prabhus and
various classes of Brahmans. Since the first appearance of plague in 1896, an increasing number of Bhattias and several rich
Muhammadans have deserted the business-quarters of the city and taken up their residence on Malabar Hill.’

55
Many Muslim families come in from rural India and settled in the E and C Wards around 1947, during
the bloodshed that accompanied the Partition (dividing the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority
India and Muslim-majority Pakistan). These two wards are still quite densely populated and have
many old residential buildings. Wards A to G came to be called the ‘Island City’, drawn from the
seven islands which made up this part of the city.

The Gazetteer predicted that ‘The middle-classes will eventually find more suitable accommodation in
the northern sections of the island which are now in process of acquisition by the City Improvement
Trust; the upper classes, particularly Europeans… will perhaps find relief in the reclamation of the
western foreshore of the island; while the whole of the central belt of the island between Grant road
and Naigaon Cross road will thus be reserved for the industrial and lower classes’ (Edwardes,
Macnabb Campbell, and Presidency 1909). It appears that social fragmentation was not just
historically created by social groups that chose where to stay, but was also woven into state policy.

The municipal limits of Bombay were extended in 1950 to include the Andheri taluka of the Bombay
Suburban District as Suburban Bombay. The limits were extended up to Jogeshwari along the Western
Railway and up to Bhandup along the Central Railway. The limits were further extended in February
1957 up to Dahisar along the Western Railway and Mulund on the Central Railway. The jurisdictions
of the Commissioner of Police (Bombay) and the Collector (Bombay Suburban District) were made
now coterminous with the extended 'jurisdiction of the Bombay Municipal Corporation(Arunachalam
1986). The geographical expansion of Bombay was structured by the existing railway line, as
suburban townships grew at every station.

In 1957, Borivali taluka together with its villages was transferred from Thane district and also
appended to Bombay, thus further extending the limits of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. Thus
the present Greater Bombay District, comprising the city proper and its suburbs, came into existence
on 1 February 1957.

By the early 1980s, the upper classes were moving into the western half of the H Ward, because of its
location near the seaside and the better of the city’s two railway systems. Moreover, this locality was
not disturbed by the noise and pollution of factories. D Ward was also largely inhabited by members
from rich and powerful families for similar reasons.

The spatial distribution in Mumbai in the twentieth century primarily leans towards the suburbs,
particularly the western suburbs (Wards H, K, P & R) which have experienced a three-fold increase in
population density between 1971 and 2001. Population density in western suburbs increased from
4,169 in 1961 to 24,000 persons per square kilometre in 2001. In the eastern suburb it also increased
from 3,151 persons per square kilometre in 1961 to 22,000 persons per square kilometre in 2001. This
shows the population shift, driven by the search of cheaper accommodation and housing, and that most
migrants have been choosing to settle there. Over time, the south western coast of Mumbai has
emerged as the space were the rich and powerful live—particularly wards A, D and G/South. The
cotton textile mills and ghettoes of mill workers live in E, G and F Wards.

The history of Bombay has been a history of fragmentation and polarization along community identity
lines—class, caste and religion. Segregating community-based neighbourhoods was a policy started
by the British in urban areas, although in rural India this segregation is common. Land ownership has
played an important role in creating segregated communities. This process was reinforced by the
ruling elite, who wanted to retain certain high value areas (the town area, coastal areas and the hills)
within their community. New migrants were permitted to occupy swampy areas and where new waves
clustered with earlier arrivals. The city has never been a melting pot where the borders between
communities have broken down. The city’s major groups have been open to influence and learning
from each other and at times working together, but have tended to live in areas segregated from each
other (Siddiqui and Bhowmik 2004; Das 1995).

56
This historical pattern of segregation of the city by social and economic group along with its rapid
growth is reflected in the type of housing and public amenities available to the different sections of its
population. This can be clearly observed in the slum areas where the majority of the lower caste
workers live and which are mainly located on marshy land or on inaccessible hills. State interventions
in land ownership can be used to promote more equal access to land in societies fragmented along
class and caste lines. In the next section I shall examine how patterns of land ownership and tenure in
Mumbai have evolved and influenced existing disparities amongst social groups.

4.3 LAND OWNERSHIP AND TENURE

Land ownership in Mumbai is split equally between government and private landowners. Amongst the
government agencies owning land in Mumbai are the Government of India, the state government, and
local government (i.e. the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai). The location of ownership
varies: in the island city much of the land belongs to the Municipal Corporation and other government
bodies (a legacy of the colonial past), while lands located in the suburbs of Mumbai are distributed
equally by private landowners and state government (see table 4.1 and figures 4.2 and 4.3 for details
overview of land ownership).

Table 4.1: Land ownership in Mumbai in 1981 in acres

State Govt Central

Region Municipal Private Total
& MHB Government
Island City 59.02 8.27 20.75 2.81 90.85
Suburb 35.91 38.34 76.53 41.34 192.12
Extended suburbs
5.07 33.89 2.72 30.99 72.67
(wards P, R, T)
Details unattained 19.5 24.96
Total (actual) 624,515 740,550 191,745 1,611,955 3,168,765
Total (percentage) 20 23 6 51

Source: Development Plan of Bombay 1981-2001, BMC

Figure 4.2: Land ownership in Mumbai by different actors

57
Land Tenure 16

Tenure rights on land in Mumbai are fragmented. The Gazetteer of Bombay records a number of
tenure methods in practice during the pre-independence period. Some of these customary and complex
tenure practices—regarding the relationship between land owner and agricultural tenants—were
carried over from earlier ruling regimes (the Portuguese, Maratha Kings, Mughal and others), whereby
some of the older systems of tenure were recognized, recorded under names such as Fazindari, Toka,
and Imami.

As a means for establishing its position as legitimate owners of all Bombay land, the East India
Company undertook measures to declare all sales and transaction of land in the past as illegal, and
threatened all Indians who assisted in revenue collection, undertook revenue survey of the city and
applied the new system of land tenure (Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, 1885);(Dossal 1995). It was
during this time of large expansionism and asserting control over land in Bombay in the late
eighteenth century that the British Administration pointed out to widespread encroachment on and sale
of government land (Dossal 1995). Another feature of exercising their rights over land was the
reclamation17 efforts that the Company undertook. It also exercised its rights by gifting away huge
chunks of land to Parsi families that had helped the crown.

The Ryotwari 18 system of land tenure was applied to Bombay during the British Period, as a form of
agricultural tax, totalling one third of the gross product. The levy was not based on actual revenue
from the produce of the land, but instead an estimate of the potential of the soil. But most importantly
the new system changed the relationship between the local landowners and their land; it rendered them
as mere leaseholders and granted ownership rights to the British.

The new system introduced by the British was not taken lightly by the large land owners, The
Fezandars (landed proprietors) had enjoyed substantial rights in the land during Portuguese rule and
they resisted the move on the part of the English East Indian Company to reduce their status to mere
leaseholders (Dossal 1995). These conflicts between the landed proprietors and the company were
resolved by using what Dossal calls a conciliatory policy in times of insecure position of the company
and aggressive in times when expansion of territory was found to be necessary. In 1872, Lieutenant
Colonel G.A Loughton completed his revenue survey of Bombay Island which covered 22 square
miles of territory: he found seventeen property registers with nine different land tenures on Bombay
Island (Dossal 1995, 99). Subsequently, all the land in Bombay Island was classified as government
land. However, this intervention did not completely do away with existing customs and practices of
tenure and rental relationships which were in practice prior to the government declaration. The two
systems co-existed; as Dossal writes, ‘Encroachments would continue; the government would
constantly fear the hidden transfers and unknown transactions taking place without its consent or
payment of its dues’ (ibid: 99 ).

Also in the suburbs there were similar tenure practices. While the British were more concerned with
the Island City, the Indian government tenure regime designed with the First Development plan of

16
It is a name given— particularly in common law systems—to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual,
who is said to ’hold’ the land. The sovereign monarch (known as the Crown) held land in its own right. All private owners
are either its tenants or sub-tenants. The term ‘tenure’ is used to signify the relationship between tenants and lord, not the
relationship between tenant and land. The concept of land tenure has been described as ‘spatial fragmentation of proprietary
interests in land’. No one person could claim absolute ownership of a parcel of land, except the Crown. Thus the modern
concept of ‘ownership’ is not helpful in explaining the complexity of the distribution of rights. In relation to a particular piece
of land, a number of people had rights: first the tenants in demesne with possessory rights: second the mesne lord to whom
the tenant owed services: third, a tenant in chief to whom the mesne lord owed services and finally the Crown which received
services directly from the tenant in chief.
17
In the 1920s Chowpatty to Colaba were under the sea, Harvey was Chief Engineer and Mr. Nariman was a public worker
who fought against the reclamation in the public arena as well as in courts; some of the reclamation was indeed halted.
18
Associated with the name of Sir Thomas Munro, who was appointed Governor of Madras in 1820.

58
Bombay was interested in governing all lands. These different tenure patterns continue to co-exist and
make exercising eminent domain by the state very difficult.

Land ownership and its tenure have a direct impact on transaction value. As such, it is not surprising
to find that private land under unclear tenure had a low price and was used for creating informal
housing which the land owners and their managers built in the period of the state-controlled regime.
A combination of factors appears to influence what kinds of development take place in a ward. The
first predominant factor is the land ownership and the power relations within the policy regime. For
instance, if the land is privately owned and the urban policy regime is one where private lands are not
allowed to develop freely, the landowner will finds means outside the legal system to monetize the
value of his land. The value of such lands is likely to remain low until the regime is altered.

Figure 4.3: Residential prices per square metre in Mumbai Corporation Area, according to ward
Residential prices per square metre

160000
140000
120000
100000
80000 Series1
60000
40000
20000
0

Wards

Source: Stamp Duty – Ready Reckoner for Mumbai (2005)

The next section will present some of the housing types existing in the city along with the differences
within the city with regards to basic amenities. State efforts to extend basic amenities and housing to
marginalized communities and bring them into the mainstream shall be analyzed in the next chapter.

Housing the city

The establishment of the cotton mills in mid-nineteenth century saw an influx of migrant labourers
who settled on the agrarian lands near the mills. Mill owners built residential buildings—called
chawls—for the workers. These were usually multi-storied buildings, each level containing single
room tenements 19 connected by a long corridor or veranda. Apart from mill owners, colonial
government organizations (such as the Bombay Improvement Trust, the Bombay Port Trust and the
Railways) also constructed chawls for the working class in the early twentieth century, following the
increase in population and growth in trade. In 1929, there were 64,000 millworkers living in chawls.
In places like Dadar, most workers lived in rooms occupied by six up to twenty or even more persons.

The early (eighteenth century) trader settlements were built on agrarian lands, outside the Fort walls,
either bought from the original owner or developed by them. These settlements also known as wadis,
provided housing for traders and migrant labourers who worked for them. As the city’s population
expanded, the British took over land belonging to the native inhabitants (the Kolis, the Agris and the
Bhandaris) and gave them land and housing in alternative places as compensation, thus turning the
Koliwadas, the Agriwadas and Bhandarwadas into the inner city.

19
It was usual to find such a single tenement housing a family of more than 6 people, living in a single room of 10 m² and
around 30 such households sharing 3 water closets and 3 bathrooms (Study of Housing Typologies, CRIT, May 2007,
Learning From Mumbai, Urban Age Seminar 2007).

59
The 1971 census puts the population of greater Mumbai at 5,970,575, with a population growth rate of
3.7 % per annum. The largest chunk of this growth took place specifically in the suburbs, following
the earlier trend.

During this period, the fastest growing wards in the suburbs were N and M; they grew by 190% and
133% respectively between 1961 and 1971. The next fastest growing were P, T and R wards. The
growth in population does not follow the growth in employment in these wards: in the 1970s the
highest density of workers (of the formal sector) was found to be residing in G, F and E wards. Thus,
employment in the informal sector and self-employment took precedence in the suburbs of Bombay.

Two factors contributed to the city’s population growth between 1971 and 1981—natural internal
growth and migration. During this period, it was estimated that growth was around 52% and 48%
respectively. According to the 1981 census, 77.4% of households in greater Bombay were residing in
one-room units in the chawls and slums. A total of 20,000 buildings in the Island City of Bombay
were identified as houses in need of repairs, 16,000 of these have been constructed prior to 1940 and
some were even more than hundred years old (Census of India, 1981).

The economy in the 1970s was dominated by manufacturing industries with almost 37% of
employment and 23% of total output contributed by the composite textile mills, which were owned by
the business houses. Although the textile industry was already showing signs of slowing down with a
drop in employment in 1972, the percentage of employment in the textile industry fell even further,
down from 49% in 1961 to about 42% in the 1970s. Employment in other industries grew during this
period, especially the growth in chemical and rubber (50%) as well as the basic metal engineering
industries (23.4%) was phenomenal. Despite the growth of economy and increased employment in the
formal sector, a very large chunk of the workforce remained outside formal employment and entered
the informal sector as self-employed or contract workers (Pendharkar 2003).

City congestion due to increased migration in residential spaces assigned to the labour class led to the
population spilling over from the chawls to self-created housing or slums. From 1950 to 1968, the
number of slum areas increased by 18%, and by 1980 slum dwellers made up half of the city’s entire
population. During the 1960s and the 1970s, the average annual need for new housing was 46,000
dwellings and 60,000 dwellings respectively by decade; however, supply was far below demand—
only 17,600 and 20,600 were constructed respectively by decade (both private and public sector
housing) (MMRDA, 2003).

In 1964, as a result of the Town Planning Act and Land Acquisitions Act, residential colonies were
established for the burgeoning population, however with different types of housing for the lower
income group, the middle class and the higher income group. Public housing was being differentiated
along economic class lines. While the lower income groups were housed in tenements that resembled
chawls, the middle class and higher income group received apartments. One Bedroom Hall Kitchen
(1BHK flat) was created for the burgeoning middle class, mostly civil servants leaving the chawls, and
white-collar migrant population. Keeping pace with the growing number of middle class families in
the city, much of the construction activity was devoted to building 1BHK flats. Government housing
also included the development of resident spaces for government workers. Housing was either
provided as quarters maintained by the government department itself, or it was a cooperative society
built by employees of government department with subsidized government aid. The pattern was also
followed by private industries. Later on many of these cooperative society flats were sold to those who
are not employed by the government. Apartment type again depended on the pay scale and seniority
levels of the employees.

The 1990s—especially the first half of the decade—saw an unprecedented real estate boom.
Residential townships were created by private developers, and builders offered 2-6 bedroom flats in
large apartment buildings. These townships had ample open spaces, commercial establishments, health
centres, entertainment centres and were advertised as self-sufficient.

60
Due to historical reasons given above, certain areas have always been preferred residential areas over
others. Over time, the western coastal areas have become preferred residential places for the ‘new
rich’, while the Island City has been retained by the ‘old rich’. In the last three decades K West and H
West have emerged as high priced residential localities. D Ward has always held a special place as it
houses the chief minister, most of the industrial owners and also faces the coast.

Shack dwellers

In 1976, 39% of the population of greater Bombay was recorded to be living in slums, as per the slum
census undertaken by state government. The Island City had 17.8% of its population residing in slum
areas, the eastern suburbs had 71% and the western suburbs 70%. Wards such as M, L, N and R had
over 75% of their population living in slum areas, while L Ward was considered to be completely a
slum ward (see table 4.1). These were also the wards with high levels of private land holdings.

Today, greater Mumbai is home to 12.5 million people (Census 2011), spread out over 437 km² with
49% of its population living in slums 20 or homeless (living in tenements and huts on pavements along
railway tracks, under bridges and other locations). It is estimated that another 15% above this figure
actually live in slums, although not recognized by the government as such. More than half of the
population lives in abject poverty, squalor and deprivation. According to the 2001 census, 1,774,332
households live in Mumbai, of which 56.5% do not have access to latrines, 29.4% have to carry water
from sources outside of their premises, and 62.3% live in one room houses (Hardoy and Satterthwaite
1989; Swaminathan 1995; Patel 2005).

Slums or shacks dweller existed during the rule of East India Company too; they were called blighted
communities. The difference the Republic of India brought to this phenomena is the introduction of a
special law which governs slum areas. The Slum Areas (Improvement and Clearance) Act 1971,
defined slums as areas that ’(a) are in any respect unfit for human habitation; or (b) are by reason of
dilapidation, overcrowding, faulty arrangements and design of such buildings, narrowness or faulty
arrangements of streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitation facilities, or any combination of these
factors detrimental to safety, health or morals’. The Act also lays down a process by which areas can
be declared a slum and by which authority residents of slum areas can gain access to services. (The
Government of Maharashtra 1971)

Slums are self-help housing, that migrant workers build, occupy and improve, seeking permissions
from local and state government to occupy the piece of land, and construct temporary shacks on it.
The majority of the slums in Mumbai are located on what used to be marshy lands, far from railway
stations on inaccessible hills, and therefore unattractive for formal housing. These lands were
reclaimed and made habitable by the migrants before they could construct homes on them.

Slum housing range from structures put together by plastic and tin sheets (sometimes also with refuse
material from construction sites) to semi-permanent structures where the original building materials
have been reinforced by cement, wood and brick. The houses are usually single room tenements to
which rooms or a storey or two are added to accommodate growing families. Additions to the original
structure are at times rented out.

These houses are tiny, with about 42% having areas of 10 m², 38 per cent having areas between 15 and
20 m² and the rest 20 m². In 2001, YUVA, a nongovernmental organisation, and Montgomery Watson
Consultants counted 1,959 slums with a population of 57.2 lakh people, whereas the Environmental
Status Report for 2002-03 of MCGM recorded abound ’2,245 slum pockets’. Out of these, 93% are
slums recognized by the state government with consent from the land owning authority. Once a

20
Slum areas have been broadly defined by the Census Department for the 2001 Census as ‘all notified slums under any act,
all recognized as slums which may have not been formally notified as slum under any act and as compact areas of at least 300
population (unspecified special unit) or about 60-70 households of poorly build congested tenements in unhygienic
environment usually with inadequate infrastructure or lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities’.

61
settlement has been declared a slum, its residents receive civic and public amenities by the municipal
authority as well as being issued proofs of residence, i.e. photo passes or ration cards. Settlements
which are not declared 21 ‘slum areas’ can be subject to evictions and are not entitled to benefit from
potential rehabilitations.(YUVA and Montgomery Watson Consultants India 2001; Risbud 2003;
NRCUP 2009; UNDP 2005).

Declaration of a settlement as a ‘slum area’ ought to bring amenities, development and the assurance
of some kind of rehabilitation if the area is required for development. It means that the state chooses to
temporarily ignore planning and zoning norms to regularize otherwise illegal settlements and include
the residents as part of their service network. The process of declaration of a settlement as a slum area
is a political process and is often led by political representatives of the area.

Creating a foothold in the city for a household begins with securing a temporary shelter using family
and village networks. The ration card is the very next document of recognition that the slum household
attempts to acquire. It gives access to a public subsidized food system, and is also generally used as
proof of existence for the household. It is an important document to prove how long the family has
occupied a slum hut and is the basis for other proofs of residence which a slum resident must gather to
make their habitat claims. Access to services such as water taps, electricity connections, access to
assistance projects (such as slum redevelopment schemes), depends on whether the household has
been issued a ration card prior to the ‘cut-off date’. This is a calendar date defined by politicians.
Households that did not obtain proof of residence prior to this date are excluded from amenities and
programs. The extension of these dates is a political project, promised before every assembly
elections. Once the majority of the households is able to produce documents that confirm residence
prior to the cut-off date, the status of the slum (if it is on state and municipal land) changes from
unrecognized to a recognized one, and the community can legally receive municipal services. Having
an address on the ration card ensures inclusion on the electoral list of the neighbourhood, making the
person a voter in the coming elections. Having the right to be included in the provision of public
services is linked to the realization of voting rights at that address of new migrants. Together these
create security of habitat and rights for the migrants (Burra 2005).

Amenities are basic in slum areas. The status of the slum areas has not changed much over the
decades, the provision of amenities is dependent on the negotiating power of the community vis-à-vis
the local representatives of political power—either slum lord, community leader or elected councillors,
and leaders of the political parties. An important variable noticed by activists regarding the level of
amenities in slum areas is the land ownership of the slum. Slums on municipal lands are better
serviced than those belonging to state government or private lands as they fall directly under the
jurisdiction of the government of Maharashtra. Worst off in terms of security as well as amenities are
slums on central government lands or Ministry of Forest and Environment lands (Landy and
Chaudhuri 2004). Almost 70% of the slums are found on lands owned by private persons and are
located in the suburbs. Some wards that were recorded as slum wards in the 1980s (such as L and M)
continue to house the largest number of slum communities today (see table 4.2 below).

Few amenities and poor living conditions have a direct impact on the health status of the residents of
the squatter settlements. High densities, poor ventilation and light cause fatal disease such as
tuberculosis. Non-potable drinking water is known to result in high mortality amongst children. With
poverty groups living in slums concentrated in some areas of the city it is not surprising to know that
high mortality has been recorded in these wards. Mortality patterns studied by Ramasubban and Crook
showed that patterns of mortality had not drastically changed after independence and that there is a
high mortality and disease clustering effects towards the eastern side of the city in wards N, M and L,
these are predominately industrial areas with majority of population living in slum like conditions
(Ramasubban and Crook. 1995).

21
Undeclared is the term usually used for the bureaucratic processes, in which slums are gradually recognized and receive
basic services.

62
Table 4.2: Land ownership of slums in Mumbai, 2001

Percentage
Number of slum
Land category / Ownership of slum
pockets
pockets
Private 924 47
State government 431 22
Municipal 313 16
Mixed 190 10

Central government 88 4
Railways 13 1
Total 1959 100

Source: YUVA and Montgomery Watson Consultants, India (2001) and Census of India (2001)

Looking at the figure on land price and the table on ownerships of slum lands, it is possible to find a
certain connection between these two, i.e. wards with predominantly privately owned lands are also
the wards with the large number of squatter settlements. These are the low priced lands of the city.

This historical background has led to an uneven development of the city and is reflected in real estate
prices. Even today, the southern tip of the island (wards A and B)—largely owned by the municipal
government—remains the most expensive part of the city, followed by the western coastal wards (G
South, H West, K West and East). Next are the new, emerging localities in the north-western suburbs.
Some of the lowest real estate prices are to be found in the eastern suburbs—particularly in L, M and
T Wards—all of which have industrial units as well as large slum populations. Real estate prices
reflect the value that the location has achieved historically, and the prices are a reflection of its
proximity to colonial town, access to the city and the available amenities.

Another factor influencing land prices is the clarity of land ownership and its tenure, as then land can
easily be transacted in the market making it attractive for development. Both M and L wards are also
wards which have large tracts of land owned by the Union of India.

4.4 CONCLUSION

The city of Bombay was carved out of a natural harbour in the sixteenth century had gained
importance as a critical trading outpost in its identity as a mercantile community. To gain control of
the city was important for maritime powers, such as Portugal and Britain. The city was disputed
territory until it was finally gifted the East India Company late in the seventeenth century by the
British Crown. A common denominator in both colonial rule and its post-independence existence was
the significance of spatial control by the ruling class.

The East India Company exercised spatial control as a means to expand their capitalist interests. They
used various means such as gifting of land, reclamation from the sea, land acquisition, bringing
different land tenures and practices under one single legal system. Some of these methods have left
their mark and continue to influence urban development even today., such as large privately owned
lands in Mumbai, class based segregation of city space, differential privileges for different classes,
efforts to acquire privately owned lands at government set low prices,. They also attempted to bring
the differing land tenures and practices under one system with little success. The result was a dual
system of tenure, which continued to co-exist even after Independence.

With independence different levels of government also came to own land, each governing it under
their own rules. This fragmentation of land ownership and the dual system of land tenure has created a

63
patchy development of the city. This patchy development is reflected in the land prices of the wards,
amongst which a very wide range is also to be found . Wards with the largest number of slum
population are also the very areas which have very low land prices. Further, we are able to show that
land ownership dictates the quality of housing and amenities that are found on it. Slums owned by the
Union of India are likely to be worst off and slums on municipal government land are best serviced.
The more local the level of government that owns the land is, the better the chances of the slum being
serviced are.

This chapter has presented the fragmentation of urban space in Mumbai in its various phases. It also
sketched the relationship between control regimes of the British and the Government of India and its
implications on land ownership as well as the creation and development of slums. Governments of
free India appear to be continuing exclusionary practices institutionalized by the British. We find that
several factors have contributed to the large number of slums in Mumbai. First, the large level of
private land ownership in Mumbai with multiple co-existing and unclear tenure systems prevented
land markets from becoming commercialized. Second, the British did not manage to make this system
more uniform in character, so that regular ownership became impossible for large groups of residents.
Finally, the high population growth from migration together resulted in a large number of city
dwellers living in slums with few basic amenities. In the next chapter, I will examine the role that the
state has played in urban development and its efforts in applying multiple tools in order to improve the
social welfare of the city’s residents.

64
CHAPTER 5: GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNANCE OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN
MUMBAI

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this chapter is to describe the efforts taken by different levels of government to bring about
urban development in Mumbai. This chapter also sets out the regulatory context within which the
Development Plan for the city is formulated. Academic literature and earlier works have indicated the
existence of informal networks with their own sets of rules. As they also frame the context within
which the Development Plan of the city is formulated, these too are presented alongside the formal
regulatory framework.

Section 5.1 will present an overview of the various levels of government and their style of urban
intervention historically as well as providing a critique of the approach of Government of India (the
national level). Section 5.2 will offer a critique of the intervention approach of the state government.
Section 5.3 will assess the intervention approach of the local government (MCGM), its structure and
its prescribed norms regarding public amenities. It will explore the planning process and the actors
responsible for and involved in both the formal and informal aspects of planning. Section 5.4 will
explores the relationship between MCGM and the state government.

5.1 THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

India is a federal country with three tiers of government: central government (also known as the
Government of India—GOI), provincial government (known as the state government), and local
government (corporations or municipalities). All government levels are democratically elected and
elected officials are flanked by permanent administrative officers. The GOI’s role vis-à-vis urban
development consists of setting broad directions for development, framed in the urban policy. It also
formulates various ‘model acts’, which serve to guide state governments in formulating similar laws at
the provincial level.

GOI’s primary intervention tool for urban development has been urban land legislation, the slant of
the legislation has predominantly been of control. A number of laws have been passed by the GOI,
such as the Urban Land Ceiling Act of 1976, Costal Regulation Zones, and the Special Economic
Zones Act. In the next section some of these influential acts are discussed in detail.

The central government formulates national level policies which guide policymaking at the State
Level (e.g. slum policies). It also controls the flow of foreign funds to different sectors. Foreign Direct
Investments (FDI) in housing and urban infrastructure have had a direct impact on the availability of
capital for housing and the increase of the housing supply for higher income brackets in the India’s
megacities. Until recently, multilateral agencies (such as the World Bank) could not directly fund the
projects of municipal corporations. They were expected to work directly with the central government,
which would in turn sanction and transfer all multilateral investments.

Another feature of central government intervention and its impact on urban areas has been the
launching of centrally funded programmes that are executed by the state or by municipal corporations,
such as the Sarva Jyanti Rozgar Hami Yojna (SJRY), which aims to reach out to the families in urban
areas that live below the poverty line. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM) is the most recent and largest central government programme of this kind; however, its
impact is limited to a section of all the cities which fall with this programme.

The central government is also a directly interested stakeholder as a land owning authority in urban
areas (e.g. Mumbai), where large chunks of land are owned by different departments of the GOI, such
as the railway areas, the sea port and the airports. Large public sector units are owned by the GOI:
Rashtriya Chemical Fertilizers, Bharat Petroleum and the nationalized textile mills. Certain areas of

65
the city, such as the salt pans, are also regulated by GOI. Large tracks of coastal lands on the eastern
side of Mumbai are private lands used to pan salt. The recycling of these lands requires permissions
from the GOI. A discussion of the legal tools that the GOI has formulated and endorses follows below.

Land Acquisition Act 1894

The Land Acquisition Act was formulated during the British rule of India and has been retained in
practice by the republic of India. The LAA 1894 allows the state to undertake compulsory acquisition
of land for public purposes; it defines the eminent domain of the government in acquiring privately
owned lands. The question of public purpose/public use has been extended to include a number of
activities undertaken by the state individually or in partnership with other actors. In 1984, public
purpose was extended to include land owned by private companies,. This would include land required
for industry or for setting up offices and residential apartments for the private company. In section 8 of
the act, ‘Public Purpose’ includes land required for the following purposes;

• Land for town planning and rural planning

• Planned development from public funds, for the purpose of policy implementation;
• Provision of land owned or controlled by state for use by a corporation;
• For residential projects for the poor or those residing in areas affected by natural calamities, or
for schemes undertaken by government, local authority, or corporations owned or controlled
by the state;
• Provision of land for education, housing, health or slum clearance schemes proposed by
government through any authority established by the government for implementing such
schemes;
• The provision of land for any other development scheme sponsored by the government;
• The provision of any premises or building for locating a public office.

Thus, the Land Acquisition Act defines ‘public purpose’ as pertaining to general public benefit or
development. An activity can also be described as ‘public’ if it is established for commercial purposes
by the government. This very broad and all inclusive definition of public purpose which includes
almost all purpose takes away from act its public profile and is manipulated to benefit private interests.
There is a need to make a distinction between public amenities and infrastructure for public use and
other types of development which may be for economic benefit (they need to be explicitly excluded
from being described as public purpose). The current law lumps together public infrastructure
expansion of state owned corporation, refugee settlements and special economic zones (SEZs).

Under this act, the market value of the land is awarded as compensation to the land owner. Market
value is determined by the rates prevailing at the date of publication of the notification. In addition, an
amount of 12% per annum is added to the market value. However, ‘market value’ as decided by the
government is often not accepted as the real price of the land by the landowner. Under the Land
Acquisition Act, the acquiring body is the Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO) who works under
the supervision of the Additional Collector of the state government. The MCGM is the utilizing body,
which means that the amenities created on the acquired lands will be used by the MCGM. The process
of identifying lands to be acquired, their surveying, intimidating private landowners is a long process
that involves various departments of state and local government. In 1999, the department of state
government in charge of implementation of the LAA carried out a survey, which indicated that 413
plots were acquired from 1978 to 1999. The status report of LAA shows that of these 413 acquired
plots only 51% of these plots had been developed as public amenities. for the purpose for which they
were acquired (see table 5.1).

66
Table 5.1: Current status of plots acquired under the LAA (1978-1999)
Frequency Percent
Court case 1 0.2
pending
Amenity 211 51.0
Developed
Encumbered 49 11.9
Not approved 47 11.4
Not developed 82 19.9
Partially 19 4.6
developed
Vacant plot 4 1.0
Total 413 100

Source: SLAO of Mumbai (n.d.)

ULCRA 1976

The Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act of 1976 was passed by the GOI during the National
Emergency. The principal objectives of this act were to prevent concentration of urban land in a few
hands, speculation and profiteering, and to bring about a more equitable distribution of land. A ceiling
is applicable to different categories of urban agglomerations; depending on their population size, it
could range from 500 m² to 2000 m². For Mumbai, the ceiling was set at 500 m². The Act exempts
lands belonging to the government, local authorities, universities, educational institutions, trusts
established for public or education purpose, and cooperative societies. The act was aimed to apply to
private individuals and families who hold large quantities of land. In theory, the land acquired is to be
distributed to the landless poor under the various government schemes; however, there are no
provisions in the act that provide norms for distribution.

Using the data submitted by the state government in reply to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by
Babu Rao Samant and others, it can be concluded that 17% of all land in Mumbai fell under the
ULCRA. This figure is misleading, as it does not include the textile mill lands. The state government
was able to acquire only 262 acres of land directly from private land owners: 62 acres were given to
the Nagrik Niwar Parishad for constructing housing for the ‘economically weaker sections’ (EWS), 70
acres were handed over to MHADA and the rest was used for government offices and institutions.
(see table 5.2).

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Table 5.2: Status of ULCRA land in Mumbai

Category of actions taken by state In acres

Pending cases in Greater
Mumbai above 10 acres 13,349

Pending cases in Greater

Mumbai above 100 acres 2,186

Exemptions for housing 0 3,123

Acquired by state
government (up to 2006) 262

Acquired by state (August 2006 –

government 909
January 2007)
Total land under ULCRA 18,920
Total Area of Mumbai 108,376

Source: Government Reply to PIL filed by Babu Rao Samant and others (2005)

Secondary data from the ULCRA office in Mumbai reveals that totally 299 exemptions were given
under section 21 of the ULCRA in Mumbai, of which only 31% of the projects are completed and
22% are ongoing. It is significant to note that 70 projects (23.4%) have been withdrawn by order of
state government. In these cases large land holders have used the exemptions under section 21 to
subvert the land acquisition process, as an effective tactic to retain open lands within the city.

Mr. V. K. Pathak, the former chief planner of MMRDA, is critical: ’The Act did not achieve the
objective for which it was created; on the contrary, it had some counterproductive results. The scarcity
of land affected by the urban land ceiling increased land prices. The process of obtaining exemptions
helped rent-seeking behavior and made land market more oligopolistic’ (Pathak 2007). While the
central government repealed the Central Act in 1999, the Government of Maharashtra did this only in
2008, to fulfil a pre-condition of the JNNURM programme.

The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 gave the state the powers to exercise eminent domain. This meant
that state had powers to acquire private lands for public uses or the general good. The legislation set
compensation at market value. This right of the state has been repeatedly disputed in courts and has
been retained even in the face of the right to property being recognized as a constitutional right.
Litigation and judgments in the 1970’s further strengthened the government’s control over private land
as it could now acquire land at nominal costs and not market value. The Land Acquisition Act did
give government powers to acquire private land for public purpose, which includes planning and
housing for displaced as a result of implementing the plan. The Urban Land Ceiling Act was designed
to transfer land from the large land owners to no land owners by creating housing for them in urban
areas. Furthermore, under this act acquisition of land was possible at a nominal price and not at market
price The passing of the Urban Land Ceiling Act in 1976 symbolized the increase of control of the
state power over the private land owners. How this power is shared between the central and state
governments and how does this impact development of Mumbai are issues taken up later in this
chapter.

5.2 THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA IN URBAN

DEVELOPMENT

The Government of Maharashtra (which is responsible for all urban development) plays a large role in
urban planning and formulation of urban development and housing legislation as well as in providing
funding of large infrastructure development.

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State governments in India are also in charge of social housing. To achieve this social goal of housing
for low-income citizens, the state government has set up large institutions, such as Maharashtra
Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), with the help of private contractors,
predominantly using state funding. For slum residents, state institutions have drawn up laws that help
legalize and bestow official status on slum areas, thereafter providing the residents with a form of non-
transferable tenure security together with some basic amenities. In this section of the chapter, we shall
analyze the intervention style of the stat government in the period prior to 1991.

The Town Planning Act

The Town Planning Act provides for land acquisition along with the statutory basis for preparation of
the city’s Development Plan. These development plans typically provide for land use zoning, and FSI
zoning for a twenty year period. It also provides for reservation of plots of land to be acquired for
public purpose. This zoning aims to ensure ’health and safety’ and to balance ‘demand and supply’ of
infrastructure services.

The Bombay Revised Development Plan Report lists the importance of the Bombay Town Planning
Act of 1915: 1) It enabled the planners to plan freely without being vexed by illogical boundaries of
private properties. 2) It enables the planners to raise resources for planning by levying betterment
changes in justifiable and equitable way.’ (MGCB 1984, 6, Chapter XIV)

Planning is generally conducted at three different scales: at the neighbourhood level using the Town
Planning Schemes (TPS), at the city level with the City Development Plan, and at the regional level
with the Regional Development Plan. A number of town planning schemes have been undertaken in
Mumbai under this act, in the suburbs of Dadar, Matunga, Bandra and Santa
Cruz. As the provisions of this act were limited to town planning schemes only, another act that
allowed local bodies to prepare and execute comprehensive plans for the entire city/region was passed
in 1955—the Bombay Regional Town Planning Act.

This comprehensive Bombay Regional Town Planning Act empowered the local government to plan
and execute town planning schemes for various parts of the city, with provisions for acquiring land for
urban development. In 1967, the earlier planning act was replaced by the Maharashtra Regional and
Town Planning Act, which for the first time introduced the concept of regional planning with a board
that undertook integrated and coordinated planning of physical and economic development of the
region. The first Regional Plan was sanctioned by the state government in 1973.

The Development Control Regulations (DCR) form an integral part of development plans. The
principal components of DCR relate to the use of provision in various land use zones, density zoning
in terms of dwellings units permitted per unit area, and the maximum permissible ratio of floor space
to plot (i.e. the floor space index—FSI).

The Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act which sets down the norms and process of
planning depends on the LAA of 1894 for acquiring private land to realize its goals. It clarifies that
planning is undertaken for public purposes and enables the use of the LAA for compulsory acquisition
of land. Compensation is determined on the basis of the market value on the date of declaration of
interest.

The act also allows the owner to serve a purchase notice to the appropriate planning authority if the
land is not acquired within ten years after the date of the final Development Plan. If the land is not
acquired within six months from the date of serving such notice, the reservation allotment or
designation is deemed void and the land is deemed to be released from such reservation, allotment and
designation. The land then becomes available to the land owner for the purpose of development. The
landowner can adopt the use of the land free from reservation to uses similar to the plots of land
adjacent to it. However, the government’s response to land owners’ efforts of serving a purchase
notice has been inadequate. Until 1991 the usual approach of the government was to keep the land

69
under zoning and make attempts to acquire some land. This led to a stalemate in relationships between
government and private land owners.

The Slum Improvement Act of 1971 is an improvement of an earlier act, the Slum Clearance Act of
1954, which empowered the municipal corporation to undertake slum clearance schemes, and schemes
for re-housing the poor, promotion of housing associations, providing amenities and levying
improvement charges. By virtue of this act, any area that could be declared a slum area for the
execution of any work of improving a slum area or building in such an area or relevant of clearance
area is deemed to be of public purpose. The state government or representative of the Competent
Authority (CA) can acquire land for such purpose. The amendment of the 1984 Maharashtra Act
allows the state government to transfer the lands so acquired by leasing them to a co-operative housing
society of slum dwellers.

The compensation under this act is not at market value, but does specify a method for calculating the
‘amount’. In Maharashtra, it is 60 times the net average monthly income derived from such land
during the period of five consecutive years immediately preceding the date of publication of the notice
of acquisition. Similar provisions are found in other legislation, such as the MMRD Act of 1975 and
the MHADA Act of 1976 that enable acquisition of land below market value by prescribing the
‘amount’ at 100 the monthly income of the land.

Although the Act has provisions for acquiring and transferring land to slum dwellers, in reality very
few settlements have gone through this process. In Mumbai a hundred odd cases are known,
undertaken with the efforts of left-wing political parties and social movements. The operational
difficulty of this approach is the acquisition process and low levels of compensation. There is also
reluctance on the part of state institutions as they do not see the value in transferring land to slum
dwellers without any improvements in living conditions of the slum.

As per the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority Act of 1976, land required for
housing activities can be acquired with the owner receiving similar compensation as under the
Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority Act. Other acts which empower different
agencies of the state to intervene in the land market include the Bombay Highways Act of 1955,
Bombay Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board Act of 1969 and the Coastal Regulation Zone
Act (which limits certain types of construction within the reach of the high tide line on the coast).

Regional planning

While it is the role of the local government to develop the City Plan, preparation of the Regional Plan
is the task of the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA). MMRDA is a
parastatal authority responsible for planning for the region and is under the direct leadership of the
Chief Minister of the State. It is has a nominated board made up from elected representatives from the
different municipal corporations within the region as well as ministers and secretaries of the state
government. The Chief Minster who is also minster for urban development chairs the board. The first
regional plan was sanctioned by the state government in 1973. The City Development Plan is expected
to be in agreement with the sanctioned Regional Plan. MMRDA has a more direct role to play in the
city as a planning authority for certain sections of the city.

The growing power of state government—through the MMRDA—was first observed during the
passing of the revised development plan. The state government appointed MMRDA (then BMRDA)
as a special planning Authority for the Backbay Reclamation area located at the southern tip of the
central business district of Mumbai, Bandra Kurla complex and Oshiwara District Centre (at a later
stage the list also included the coastal islands of the Madh Marve region towards the north-west). The
Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) was assigned as the Special
Planning Authority for Dharavi. In this way, certain areas which held high land prices and were seen
as locations of state interest were taken away from the municipal corporation. The excessive control of
the Chief Minister over planning areas through MMRDA has often come under criticism.

70
A review of the various regulations and institutions under state government indicate that the state has
largely an executive and planning role vis-à-vis urban development. To carry out its role it has set up
specific institutions, such as MHADA and MMRDA. MHADA is responsible for housing for the
entire state and constitutes various boards which have nominated appointees that report to the Housing
Minister. MMRDA, on the other hand, is in charge of planning for the region and reports to the Chief
Minster who chairs the authority, which is a board of nominated members from the legislative
assembly. Despite the many regulation and institutions the state government has created to bring urban
development under its control, the state’s efforts were diluted by central legislation (e.g., the Land
Acquisition Act and the ULCRA) and by well-organized private land owners who refused to allow
plan implementation on land owned by them. As a result state government sought to exercise its
influence by the use of development projects with the help of its social networks. These projects are
more often than not joint public-private projects. The Backbay Reclamation project, Powi Project by
Hiranandani developers, the Oshiwara project along with Raheja Builders are examples of such
projects.

The state government became very active in public-private networking with the passing of the
ULCRA. A few large builders escaped land acquisition under ULCRA, by signing a tripartite
agreement with the government and the landowner to undertake redevelopment of the land and turn
over a share of the developed land back to the government. In other instances, landowners and builders
sought out the exemptions offered under ULCRA. Exemptions to ULCRA were tightly controlled by
the state government and granted only at payment to agents or ministers of urban development. The
state government was seen to have yielded to pressure from the construction and business lobbies;
resulting in an emergence of nexus of builders, bureaucrats and politicians. While the above
mentioned networks existed at the state government level and the Collector’s department in charge of
implementing ULCRA, similar networks were also known to exist at the city level. (Narayanan 2003).

5.3 THE ROLE OF MCGM IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The Mumbai Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is perhaps the largest municipal
corporation in India with a reported staff of 149,471 22 in 1999. It executes a plethora of functions:
water supply, primary and secondary education, engineering services and planning, fire protection,
licensing trades, maintenance of pavements , and distribution of electricity and public bus services.

The foundation of the MCGM was laid by the British rulers in 1793, followed by the passing of the
Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) Act of 1888, which recognized the corporation as the supreme
governing body of the city and the Municipal Commissioner as its chief executive authority,
responsible for carrying out its will. This act, with its many subsequent amendments, provided the
framework for city government (Pinto and Pinto 2005). The act empowered the BMC to promote
public safety and health by providing municipal drains, dispersal of sewage, construction of water
closets, solid waste management and cleaning of public places.

The revised Development Plan of 1967 provided the following definition of public amenities:
The municipal corporation has some obligatory function such as primary education, public
health, water supply, sewerage and drainage, wastewater management, fire projection, markets
and slaughter houses, roads and bridges, streets and traffic lights, cemeteries etc. The
provision of these community requirements with reference to the obligatory duties of the
municipal corporation is of prime importance to improve the quality of life of the citizens of
this metropolis. Various reservations for such community facilities are, therefore, required to
be provided for in the development plan and implemented. It is therefore, necessary to
describe the details of these community facilities required to be provided by the civic
administration [...]’ (MCGB 1984, 1, chapter VIII)

22
This figure does not include 47,501 employees of the BEST Undertaking and those who are exclusively engaged in waste
management service (totaling 32,876) (Siddiqui and Bhowmik, 2001).

71
The above definition does not differentiate between user groups, community, citizen and public. It
uses these terms interchangeably. Further public amenities are called community facilities and have
been identified as the obligatory duty of the municipal corporation, which means that amenities
provided by the state are assumed to be for the public.

The first Development Plan for the city of Mumbai (then called Bombay) was prepared for a 20-year
period starting in 1964. The state government along with local government undertook a very detailed
process of developing a detailed master plan for the city based on norms for amenities for predicted
population growth. In this Development Plan there were 1,876 plots reserved in all, with an
approximate area of 1,142 hectares (that is 114,200,000 m²). It was estimated that the acquisition of
the land required for the implementation of Bombay’s Development Plan would require an investment
of up to 7 billion rupees at 1964 prices. Of these 1,876 reservations only 413 were acquired between
1978 and 1990 under the LAA, and yet another 299 under the ULCRA. In total 712 were acquired;
however, it does not automatically mean that they were all developed: acquisition is only the first step
to developing public amenities. Of the 413 plots acquired under the LAA, almost 30% were acquired
for open spaces with ‘schools and roads’ as the next largest category.

Table 5.3: List of amenities for which land plots were acquired between 1978 and 1990 using the
Land Acquisition Act
Number of plots
Amenities Percent
acquired
Open space 123 29.8
Schools 81 19.6
Road 62 15
Market 29 7
Utilities (pumping stations,
27 6.5
truck terminal etc.)
Medical amenities 22 5.3
Cemetery 20 4.8
Municipal housing 13 3.1
Incomplete info 7 1.7
Welfare centres and halls 7 1.7
Fire brigade 6 1.5
Municipal office 4 1
Public housing 4 1
REHAB housing 3 0.7
Harijan quarters 2 0.5
Potters colony 2 0.5
Dhobi Ghat 1 0.2
Total 413 100

Data Source: SLAO of Mumbai

Structure of the MCGM

The MCGM consists of representatives elected for five year terms on the basis of adult franchise
(currently numbering 227 councillors, each representing one ward). As per the 2009 elections there are
71 councillors from Indian National Congress, 14 from National Congress Party (NCP), 28 from
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 84 from Shiv Sena, 7 from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), 1
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and 3 from the Republican Party of India (RPI).

Municipal elections gained importance after 1950 when—for the first time—the BMC was composed
only of elected members. In 1963, 140 single member constituencies were defined, and elections were
held in 1968. In 1976, earmarked mandates for castes were introduced. In 1982, the number of seats
for councillors was increased to 170, followed by elections in 1985. In 1990, 30% of seats were

72
reserved for women. The number of councillors was increased to 221 in 1991, followed by elections in
1992. In 1994, in compliance with amendments to the Constitution of India, one-third of the seats
being set aside for women In 2002, the number of seats was increased to 227.

The BMC Act makes a clear demarcation of functions between the executive wing and the deliberative
wing. The deliberative wing is made up of all the elected representatives, and the executive wing is the
bureaucratic staff. The BMC Act specifies seven statutory/collateral authorities at the city level, each
charged with certain responsibilities: the Corporation, the Standing Committee, the Improvements
Committee, the Bombay Electrical Supply and Transport Committee, the Education Committee, the
Municipal Commissioner, and the General Manager of the Bombay Electrical Supply and Transport
Undertaking. The first five are deliberative bodies with powers to sanction funds; the last two are
executive.

At the central level, the corporation has the power to appoint ad-hoc committees (known as
consultative committees) for consulting and reporting on special subjects, such as the Grants in Aid
Committee (which looks after proposals for the award of grants to certain institutions), Planning
Committee, a Review Committee for the City, Eastern and Western Suburbs (BMC, 1999). The
constitutions of the committees reflect the numerical strength of the main parties in the corporation
and their deliberations are not very formal (Siddiqui and Bhowmik 2004).

The Commissioner, drawn from the Indian Administrative Services, is a state government appointee
who serves a renewable three-year term. He is the Chief Executive who controls and exercises
supervision through the Deputy Municipal Commissioner over the various heads of departments in
charge of civic services and the ward officers in terms of policy decisions taken by the deliberative
wing as well as state executive directions passed down to the Commissioner. The Commisssioner also
initiates proposals involving policy and seeks approval on various projects to be executed for civic
welfare. The Commissioner attends and participates at the meetings of the Corporation and the
committees but does not have the right to vote. The exercise of some powers of the office—especially
those that involve dispersal of significant funds, such as awarding contracts and disposal of property—
have to be sanctioned by the Corporation and some of its committees. The Commissioner can be
removed from office by the state government under two conditions, firstly if a proposal of the
Commissioner is supported by not less than five-eighths of the total number of councillors second, if
the state government finds that the official is incapable of performing the required duties or has been
found of guilty of misconduct or neglect. Thus not only ought the Chief Executive to be competent but
also that he is able to gather support of the councillors.

In the Corporation, the Commissioner must directly initiate a proposal—pertaining to the municipal
administration (including the various works)—for it to be considered for approval and
implementation. According to (Tinaikar 1996), the Commissioner is ’the eye of rate-payers’, sharing
responsibility equally with the councillors but having greater accountability on account of this
expertise and stake in permanent government services, as an employee of the government. The
Commissioner also has the power to refuse to execute decisions imposed on him or her, if they are in
violation of the law or the norms of financial propriety. He is the controller of municipal funds and
represents the Municipal Corporation in courts. The Commissioner also has immense discretionary
power to sanction projects and interpret laws to allow flexibility. In all, the powers of the
Commissioner have always been considered to override the authority of the elected bodies in the
Corporation (Tinaikar 1996).

While the Commissioner has the right to initiate projects and proposals, sanctioning them is the
prerogative of the House of Elected Representatives. In the absence of the Commissioner, the house is
merely a deliberating forum—debating, critiquing, questioning and advising the Commissioner who
is expected to respond by either defending the administration or by complying with the wishes of the
majority of councillors.

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Table 5.4: Public amenity norms

Amenity Obligatory provision by Categorization

MCGM
Primary schools Obligatory All existing schools (private or
public) designated as public amenity
Secondary schools Only 50 out of 700 are Private schools are allowed to take up
administered by the MCGM for development of secondary schools on
poor section of society—not reserved plots
obligatory
Libraries Discretionary function Justification of service so as to
overcome restrictive and expensive
libraries
Medical facilities Obligatory duty Both free and paid
(hospitals, maternity wards,
public health activities and
medical colleges)
Recreational and entertainment Obligatory duty corporation Public spaces with full, limited and
facilities under section 63 of BMC Act off-limits access for the general
(recreation grounds, public
playgrounds, gardens and parks,
stadium, clubs, gymkhana,
swimming pools, sea beaches
and promenades along sea
fronts, green belts, hills,
woodlands and outer parks)
Cemeteries Obligatory Community specific cemeteries,
disused cemeteries
Welfare Centre Not an obligatory duty –
however seen as a welfare
intervention in slum areas and
as substitute for recreational
amenity

Source: MCGB 1984

Surprisingly, housing is not seen as either a community or public amenity by the MCGM, probably
because housing is a state subject and is seen as a responsibility of the state government (see table
5.4). However, local government is mandated the task to prepare the Development Plan, which
contains land earmarked for public housing. Planning standards for urban areas are based on
population, space required and area of access. The Government of Maharashtra first prescribed
planning standards in March 1966 and revised them in 1979. Further revisions were carried out by the
Municipal Corporation for the 1991 Development Plan (Joseph 1996).

Planning process and the actors engaged in planning

The formal rules laid down under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act of 1966 (MRTP),
which prescribe the powers of different authorities in land use planning, indicate a very clearly laid out
role matrix for different sets of actors. While the town planners of the Municipal Corporation have
been assigned the role of surveyor, drafter and designer and recommender of plans, the councillors of
the Municipal Corporation are assigned the role of receiving comments and objections from the
public. The state government’s role is also to hear objections and finally sanction the plan. The
planning committee appears as the only platform that includes the elected representatives in the
planning process. ‘It consists of three members of the Standing Committee of the Planning Authority
(MCGM) and such additional members of persons, not exceeding four, appointed by the state
government having special knowledge or practical experience of matters retaining to town planning’
(Section 28 MRTP, in Desai 2007, 43). Every stage of planning has been assigned a specific period
and there is also a provision for sanctioning an interim development plan, as per section 32 of the

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MRTP. The state government appears to have a larger role than the local government. The state
government directs the planning process by appointing the planning officer, and has a say in
nominating members of the planning committee; it also conducts hearings independently of the local
body and has final say in adopting the plan.

Soon after the enactment of the MRTP, the first statutory Development Plan of Bombay was prepared
and sanctioned by the state government in January 1967. Commenting on the plan, Joseph, who served
as an urban development secretary during the passing of the 1991 development plan, writes,
The 1967 plan was one of those static master plans in which the existing land use was noted
down, and then proposed land uses were designated, and reservations were made in
accordance with the norms set up for the public utilities such as schools, hospitals, markets,
public halls and gardens etc. These designations and reservations, also with the provision in
the Land Acquisition Act and Municipal Act, helped BMC to control development.
Employment or investment plan or environment did not play much of a role in this plan.
(1996, 287)

The formal rules under the MRTP Act of 1966 set out what should be the contents of the Development
Plan as well as the specific role for each actor and also the specific period within which they have to
act. 23 While the overall sanctioning and policymaking authority lies with the state government, the
survey, research and preparation of the plan has to be done by the planning authority. Through a
notification in the Official Gazette, the state government identifies the planning authority. For Bombay
in the 1980s the planning authority was the Municipal Corporation of Greater Bombay (MCGB).
Under law the planning authority is required to prepare the plan and submit it within three years to the
state government. If the planning authority is unable to complete its task within the prescribed period,
the state government may grant an extension.

According to the rules under the MRTP Act, the planning authority is expected to undertake several
actions: to pass a resolution in the Corporation House, declaring its intention to prepare a
Development Plan; to send a map to the state government with the geographical boundaries of the area
for which it proposes to prepare the plan; and to publish its intention in the official Gazette and local
newspapers inviting suggestions or objections from the public within a period of no later than 60 days.
Further, a copy of the plan should be made available for inspection by members of the public at the
head office of the planning authority and the local authority. A town planning officer—usually an
employee of the planning authority—is appointed to prepare a map of the current land use pattern and
formulate proposals so that the MCGB can draw up the Development Plan.

The MRTP Act specifies the contents of the Development Plan, namely, a report on land use maps,
survey maps and charts explaining the provisions made. It should also give the manner in which
permission for developing a plot of land can be obtained and should include approximate cost
estimates involved in acquisition of the land required by the planning authority for public purposes as
well as the cost of the required works. At the end of the planning period of two years, the draft
Development Plan has to be published.

The MRTP Act also provides for the establishment of a Planning Committee to receive suggestions or
objections about the Development Plan. This committee is made up of a three member standing
committee and not more than four additional persons appointed by the state government (because of
their special knowledge or practical experience in town and country planning or environment or
both). 24 A large number of objections are raised by private land owners whose lands have been
reserved for public purpose. After the receipt of objections and suggestions about the draft
Development Plan, the planning committee has to make relevant enquiries. Following this hearing, the

23
Section 22 of MRTP Act provides that proposals can be made to allocate land for purposes such as residential, industrial,
agricultural and recreational as well as for schools, colleges and other educational institution, medical and public health
institution, markets, social welfare and cultural institutions. Proposals can also be made to designate areas as open spaces for
playgrounds and also for transport, water supply and other public utilities.
24
A committee made up of councilors nominated by the political parties with seats in the house.

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planning committee has two months—from the date it was established—within which to submit its
report and recommendations to the planning authority. The planning authority may, based on these
recommendations, modify the plan if it deems necessary.

This modified draft Development Plan has to be published in the official Gazette within a month of its
submission to the state government for approval. If the planning authority has substantially modified
the draft plan, a notice has to be published in the official Gazette and local newspapers inviting
comments and suggestions concerning the proposed modifications.

Only after all these stages are completed is the draft Development Plan submitted by the planning
authority to the state government, which is expected to sanction it within 12 months of publication in
the official Gazette. Substantial modifications—if any—made by the state government have to be
publicized through a notice in the official Gazette and local newspapers inviting objections and
suggestions. the act requires the state government to consult the state’s Director of Town Planning
who is an employee of the state government, on the draft Development Plan. After all these steps are
completed, the final Development Plan is published.

A provision in the MRTP Act gives the state government the power to prepare an interim
Development Plan pending the final plan. This interim plan, however, has to be published in the
official Gazette and can only deal with the allocation of land use for residential, industrial,
commercial, agricultural and recreational purposes as well as for public purposes (e.g., playgrounds,
green belts etc.).

Therefore, the formulation and sanctioning process of the development plans (including the
development control rules) requires a multi-actor consensus. There are multiple actors involved in this
process: 1) the Chief Minister as the head of the state government; 2) the state’s Minister of Urban
Development; 3) the members of the state’s Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra; 4) the officer
appointed by the state government to receive objections and suggestions to the plan; 5) the Director of
Town Planning; 6) the planning committee of the local government; 7) the planning officials of the
planning authority; 25 8) the general public, providing objections and suggestions; 9) the private and
public agencies that own the land that is to be acquired; 10) public-private agencies that serve as are
service providers, such as the transport and electric supply company; and 11) builders whose projects
will be affected by development regulations.

Political parties represented in the state legislature and the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) are
also crucial actors in this process. Also, there are organizations and the networks of these actors (e.g.,
lobby groups that seek to influence the decision making on development plans) (Narayanan 2003;
Thakkar 1995).

The next chapter will presents key events of the process of drafting the development plan in the mid-
1980s, with the goal of highlighting the main actors, their resources and interests.

In 1977, after the BMC signalled its intention to prepare a revised Development Plan, an officer from
the Town Planning Directorate was sent on deputation to the BMC to work under Mr. B. B. Parikh,
the Deputy Chief Engineer at the time. By 1983, a draft revised Development Plan was ready for
wards A to G and the draft development control rules and the revised Development Plan for the
suburbs were ready by 30 April 1984, when they were published. Altogether, there were about 7,700
plots reserved for public amenities in the entire city of Bombay. During the 60-day period allotted for
public comments a total of 3,800 objections and suggestions were received (Joseph 1996).

25
The planning authority in this case is the local government, i.e. the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC).

76
Figure 5.1: Planning flow chart as per the Town Planning Act of 1966

The Development Plan Department (DPD)

A special Development Planning Department exists within the MCGM; its role is to undertake land
use surveys, sanction layout plans for buildings, realize the acquisition of lands for public amenities,
and design and formulate land use regulation policies (also called the Development Plan) for the entire
city. Development control regulations are also framed by the DPD and sanctioned by the state
government. The development control regulations shape the city. It is the most important instrument
for carrying out planning policy regarding the Development Plan.

In short, the DPD of the MCGM is the nucleus of urban planning in the municipal administration as it
sets the design citywide development. The DPD is under direct control of the Director of Engineering
Services and Projects and the Municipal Commissioner. This is the department that takes into
consideration expected future city planning needs and formulates the policies and developments
proposals that will safeguard the well-being of its citizens. The department has basically two important
wings: 1) for the implementation of the sanctioned Development Plan and 2) for the revision of the
Development Plan (an obligatory requirement under the provision of the MRTP Act). It also performs
the on-going review of the plan (see figure 5.1).

The Development Plan is implemented either by external agencies (such as the landowners, private
builders and other agencies with the city) or the Municipal Corporation itself. The task of the DPD is
to guide the various departments of the MCGM to ensure that their proposals are consistent with DPD
policy. Thus the DPD receives plans from all external agencies that perform any development works.

The role of private actors, contractors and their networks with officers comes to play in the
implementation of plans. It is widely believed that contractor rings and their syndicates are function
openly within the MCGM system. These are very old links, based on the old guilds, which can be
traced to community or regional roots. A fair exchange of information, resources and influence occurs

77
within these networks. In addition, builders and professional architects are also well-connected to the
DPD and the Director of Projects at the Municipal Corporation (often hailing from the same
engineering schools, even as former classmates. Their joint forums, such as the Practicing Engineers
Architects and Town Planners Association (PEATA), provide spaces for designing innovations in
policy practices. This particular network was famous for its innovative interpretations of rules for
network members. ‘Floating FSI’ was one such experimental idea, which allowed for transfer of
development rights from the suburbs to the other, within the city (D'Souza 1987).

Certain ties among some actors have gained much attention in the press and academic writings. Some
of these ties have formulated their own sets of norms and rules over time, thus establishing a parallel
structure of relationships—a network of relationships where resources are exchanged as a means to
assert influence over the other actors. These networks and their influences over the years is well-
established and can be traced back to the 1980’s (Thakkar 1995; Siddiqui and Bhowmik 2004).

The BMC Act does not mention political parties, which at the time of its drafting in 1881 were not yet
present. The council was conceived as a body of civic-minded civil leaders with no political
affiliations (Thakkar 1995). Over time the role of political parties has grown in the Municipal
Corporation; currently almost all councillor seats are contested by candidates of different political
parties. An informal forum of deliberation is the ’Group Leaders Meeting’, which is mechanism for
the leaders of different political groups to informally discuss various proposals before they are
crystallized in formal policy proposals, which can be put before the Corporation or statutory
authorities form formal sanctions. Siddiqui and Bhowmik (2004) trace the emergence of this system
after independence when BMC elections came to be contested primarily along party lines. These two
streams one of the officers and the other of the elected representatives run parallel to each other as two
co-existing organizations within the municipal corporations, one serving the middle and upper classes
and the other serving the poor who live in squatter settlements.

Underneath the maze-like formal structure of the MCGM, we find a network of relationships between
local government and private actors. There appears to be a multiplicity of identities that actors hold in
their roles. These identities and ties are hidden away from the public view and come out in the open
during processes, which provide opportunities for collaboration (e.g., the process of drafting the
Development Plan).

5.4 MCGM AND STATE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

There are many ways in which state government exercises control over the BMC. First, it is the state
legislature that passes laws defining the rules that govern the BMC. The Development Plan is
sanctioned by the state government. Second, the Commissioner and the four Additional
Commissioners (usually Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers working in the BMC) are on
deputation from the state government. It has been noted by BMC officers that the IAS officers feel
responsible to the Chief Minster and the state government officers, rather than to the municipal
councillors. Third, the state government has considerable powers regarding land use and construction.
Important acts—for example, the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act of 1948, the
Maharashtra Land Revenue Code of 1966, the Bombay Metropolitan Regional Development
Authority Act of 1974, the Urban Land Ceiling Act of 1976 and the Maharashtra Regional Town
Planning Act—directly impinge on the concerns of the Corporations. Under the MRTP Act, the final
development plans have to be approved by the state government (Siddiqui and Bhowmik 2004).

Even though according to the law the Municipal Commissioner is the final authority that decides the
dates of elections, in practice it is the state government that directs the election programme through
informal means (Tinaikar 1996).

Finally the state government may take over the powers of the MCGM and appoint an administrator.
This in fact happened in 1984, with the stated reason for intervention being MCGM’s inability to
prepare revised ward lists and hold elections on time.

78
The Government of the State of Maharashtra—as demonstrated by the sections above—is a very
powerful actor in urban development. It chiefly intervenes through large projects and controls all
urban institutions that are involved in urban development. Even directly elected bodies, such as the
local government, have only suggestive powers vis à vis important decisions such as development
plans.

5.5 CONCLUSIONS

The number of state actors and legislations, rules and regulation governing urban development is vast
and fragmented. It is spread over different scales and levels of government, including government of
India, state government and local government. There is a continuous struggle amongst various sections
of government to gain more control over the planning and urban development process of Mumbai.
Control over urban development policies rules and regulations can often be read as a proxy to the
power equations between different levels of government, even though the proxy provides only a
snapshot of power in action. The exercise of power by one of the levels of government, especially
when it’s of the controlling kind, often gives rise to a reaction from the other levels of government. It
is this cumulative behaviour of government actors that creates a series of pictures which tell the story
of urban development of Mumbai.

In the 1970s, in response to the increased control over private land by the government of India the
state government increased its investment in joint projects with private landowners. Patron client
relationships between the landowners/builders and state government/politicians strengthened via an
exemption mechanism the ULCRA. Joint projects and exemptions for land development offer the
opportunity to earn large profits not only for individual actors but also for political parties and state
governments. It is no wonder that urban development gained precedence over other sectors of
development nationwide in the mid-1980s. In the 1980s, state government increased its control over
institutions of urban development, such as the MMRDA and MCGM. It is within this historical
context of shifting power relations amongst state actors that the revised Development Plan of Mumbai
was designed.

Networks between private actors and public actors present the informal context, which also influence
the planning process. These networks are to be found at all the levels of government. Two
predominant networks seek to influence the decision making process and the outcome is a result of
this struggle between a rational approach to development propagated by techno-managerial officers
and the market-driven approach by private land owners and some elected representatives.(Watson
2009; Narayanan 2003).

While special exemptions were offered to landowners, slum dwellers were given some basic amenities
and partial tenure guaranteed by photo-pass and similar programmes. It appears that while a tussle
between these two forces, techno managerial and markets are ongoing, the political parties and elected
representatives need to maintain an act of serving the voters, which they do using funds allocated to
them. Perhaps this is why political process in India is often referred to as a performance or a Tamasha
(Blom-Hansen 2006).

The Development Plan is a major tool for urban development in Bombay, with land management is
one its main instruments. Land surveying and its acquisition has been in practice since the British
times. In terms of rules and regulations of land management there appears to be continuations from the
rules formulated by the British Colonizers. The problems of applying those rules persist in magnitude
and so does its impact on the residents of the city. Visible change is observable in the various levels of
government emerging after independence. Shifts are observable in the strategies used by different
levels of government to influence urban development. There are many new actors on the scene such as
political parties, social groups and the media. So while the regulatory framework and land ownership
pattern has not changed from the British times, what is new in the policy-making arena is the number
of actors in the sector. In the next chapter I will present the planning process and conflict that it
unleashed.

79
80
CHAPTER 6: MRTPS AND THE CONSENSUS NEEDED FOR A NEW DEVELOPMENT
PLAN

INTRODUCTION

As seen in the last chapter the MRTP Act prescribes the process for drafting and adopting the
Development Plan. What strikes the reader about the planning process is the consensus required
among different key actors: the chief minister and other ministers, officers, planners, landowners,
councillors, civil society organizations and slum dwellers. However, this list of actors is drawn from
the legislation and not from empirical evidence. In this section of the chapter I shall study the process
of drafting and adopting the Development Plan from the mid-1980s till 1991. The process of
formulating the revised Development Plan for Bombay was initiated in 1977, and the plan was finally
passed in stages sixteen years later (between 1990 and 1993). Some of the critical stages of the plan
formulation are presented in figure 6.1.

The chapter will examine which actors intervened in the planning process, the interests and constraints
of these actors as well as how they organized themselves. The approach is to identify actors as they
engage in policymaking processes or as they exercise their agency. This exercise of agency by non-
official actors is at times outside the formal planning process and at other times invited by the state
agencies. I have selected four such events or encounters where official actors or officers of the state
meet non-official actors. The selection of these encounters between sections of society and state is
based on the coverage they received in the print media. The first encounter which gained extensive
media attention was the setting up of the Planning Committee to hear objections and
recommendations; the second was the state’s chief minister deleting the reservations of some plots;
third was the setting up of the D’Souza Committee; and the final instance was the Public Interest
Litigation (PIL) filed by environmental groups. Some of the actors stand out as key designers and
influencers of the policymaking process. The next section will provide more information and analysis
on the selected actors, based on three criteria—their interests, resources and constraints.

Section 6.2 will presents the actors’ reaction to the Draft Development Plan. Two sources of data—
primary and secondary—are used to identify the actors; the secondary sources include newspapers
journals and government reports, maps and databases. Some of the databases have been analysed to
get a citywide perspective. Further, some databases were verified by conducting a site survey of the
plots. These findings are also presented in this chapter. Based on an analysis of these sources, the
various actors and the organizations that are actively engaged are drawn out. The primary sources,
such as interviews with actors and case studies of some of the plots, help to identify actors that are
beyond the formal realm of the law. Section 6.3 will present the case study of Fulanchiwadi where I
use a bottom-up process in identifying actors at the plot level and show how it ties up to the planning
process at the city level. In the last section of the chapter the actors’ interests and constraints will be
analyzed, drawing out some key conclusions. (MCGB 1984)

81
Figure 6.1: Stages and time frame for formulating the revised Development Plan for Bombay
(1991-2011)

6.1 THE DRAFT DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The Report on the Draft Development Plan (Revised) 1981-2001, published by the administrator and
the Municipal Commissioner of MCGB in 1984, has three parts divided over fourteen chapters. The
acknowledgment page lists out the various contributors to the planning process, including various state
and central government departments as well as parastatal entities, such as the City and Industrial
Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO) and the Bombay Metropolitan Regional
Development Authority (BMRDA), and private agencies such as the Tata Economic Consultancy
Group, the Organization Research Group, Kirloskar Consultants and others.

Two major options for the type of growth to be promoted by the plan are presented. The first is to
continue with the mono-centric pattern of southward growth, which itself was understood to lead to a
continuous growth in population—estimated to reach 13.7 million by the year 2000. The second
option was a poly-nucleated type of growth, which can be achieved through distributing activities. It
was estimated that the second option would result in the stabilization of population growth by 2000.
The revised Development Plan was prepared by adopting the second option for a projected population
of 9.87 million by the year 2000.

The report lamented on the difficulties the authorities faced in acquiring land for public amenities and
recommended three possible means of increasing revenues, in order to raise funds for the land
acquisition aspect of the development plan.26 The first was to amend the MRTP Act in such a way as
to provide compensation to landowners at prevailing market rates by bringing it in line with the
practices of the BMRDA and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority Act (MHADA).
The second recommendation was to incorporate a new section in the MRTP Act, empowering the

26
A series of other fiscal and tax-based recommendations were also made to increase revenue of the municipal authority.

82
planning authority to levy development charges on the community of the locality where the
implementation of a certain proposal of the Development Plan has resulted in increased property
values. The report argued that a similar policy had already been implemented by the Calcutta
Metropolitan Development Authority in 1980. The third recommendation was to levy a Development
Tax Cess to be recovered when the landowners approach the corporation for developing their lands.
This tax was being levied in Tamil Nadu State, and by exercising this tax the MCGB aimed to stop
landowners benefiting from increases in land values.

The concept of Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) is introduced towards the very end of the plan
as a ‘policy to allow the owners of the lands reserved for various social amenities in the development
plan to develop the said plots for combined uses thereby getting the reservation site developed for the
amenity for which such land is reserved at the same time allowing the owner to get certain potential of
the plot for his beneficial use’ (MCGB 1984, point 14.4.4.5 of chapter XIV).

According to the MCGB’s draft plan, TDR from the Island City should be used in the suburbs and
from a plot in the suburbs to another plot in the same ward or another plot, located towards the north
of the reserved plot. This recommendation was a total reversal of what had been practiced in the
1970s, i.e. the ’Floating FSI’ 27 . In one particular case, the MCGM made an exception as an
experiment, permitting a builder to transfer development rights of a plot in the northern suburbs (low-
price area) to a plot in Bandra West (high-price area). As there was no rule defining such a
mechanism, when the experiment was discovered by a new officer it was declared an irregularity, and
the case was hushed up, as it involved senior officers from the planning department and a powerful
builder.

The report lays down six basic steps for the development of the TDR Programme and identifies
strategies to ensure marketability (without which the TDR Programme would not succeed) along with
rules for granting TDR. The section on TDR of the Development Plan justifies its need based on
earlier experiences of inadequate funds from the state and central government for land acquisition. It
also criticised the municipal corporation’s inability to raise sufficient funds to keep pace with the
growth in population of the city. Ironically, MCGB’s Draft Development Plan recommended TDR as
a measure for enhancing public participation in implementing the Development Plan—not as a means
for generating revenue or as an alternative means of compensation for land acquisition.

The Draft Development Plan had proposed a number of alternatives, with the planners incorporating a
cafeteria approach: leaving it to local and state politicians to decide which financial strategy was more
amenable. The pros and cons of each alternative within the context of existing land markets and
existing landownership by public and private entities were not seriously examined. The only tactical
manoeuvre of the planners was to integrate TDR as a public participation strategy, while it clearly
belonged to the section of revenue generation for land acquisition.

6.2 ACTORS’ REACTIONS TO THE DRAFT DEVELOPMENT PLAN

From the very beginning various actors showed keen interest in monitoring the movement of the
Development Plan. The Practicing Engineers Architects and Town Planners Association (PEATA)
closely interacted with planners right from the formulation stage of the Development Plan. PEATA
was initiator and proponent of the TDR mechanism. Jaswant B. Mehta (1996), an architect and
member of PEATA, offers some insight in the issues that came up before the planning officer:
When an exercise was undertaken for preparing the draft development plan for Greater
Bombay in 1981 for the period 1981-2001, it was obvious that land acquisition would be even
a still bigger hurdle than was the case during the earlier plan period because not only were the
land requirements much higher but land prices had also increased manifold. Besides, much of
the vacant land that was available in the earlier plan period had already been developed and

27
Floating FSI is the floor space index which is not linked to the plot where it originated.

83
 encumbered. Reservations are proposed on as many as 1,716 hectares of land. This formed
63% of total requirements of land covering existing as well as proposed amenities.

Mehta (1996) recognized the role of PEATA in urging the municipal authorities and the state
government to adopt a more pragmatic approach while acquiring land proposed to be ‘reserved’, by
incorporating the concept of Transfer of Development Rights in matter of land acquisition. Just as
PEATA’s focus was on instituting market mechanisms, the state government (through its
Development Advisory Committee) was more concerned with the restrictions levied by the
Development Plan on the city’s growth. The Bombay Development Advisory Committee (BDAC), a
committee of planners and IAS officers set up by the state government, criticized the Development
Plan for ’doing very little justice to the task’ and the planners’ indifference that led to quick fix
solutions (D’Souza 1987). The planners’ efforts to suggest that population growth was a problem and
their attempts to control the growth of the city in the name of environmental concerns were also
criticized. This group of actors looked for more fundamental changes with long-term growth
perspectives for the city, and therefore criticized the report for its quick fix and the planners’ growth-
control approach. Looking back at the revised Development Plan, the current MCGM planners
criticized it by saying that although the Development Plan was planned for a projected population of
9.97 million for the period of 1981-2000, the actual population in 1991 had already reached 9.91,
according to the 1991 census (Balachandran n.d.; Pathak 2007).

Clearly the Development Plan was designed for a smaller population size, setting aside large tracks of
land outside of the development process. The plan was largely recommendatory, laying out various
possible strategies to help generate revenues to cover the high cost of implementing the plan. At the
same time, the plan also proposed innovations in public-private participation via market mechanisms,
such as TDR. As such the Development Plan could be called a toolbox that lays out all the possibilities
but leaves it open for decision makers to choose and select. That is precisely what appears to have
happened according to the series of events presented below: the Development Plan for Bombay turned
into an arena where the interests of a section of powerful actors dominated strategic decision-making
processes.

The planners’ interest was to control growth (both in population and spatial dispersion) of the city and
find means of funding the plan with minimal dependence on state or central government. They sought
to raise funds though market mechanisms, as this formula had already been tried out elsewhere and
looked more trustworthy than other means of raising funds. The IAS officers were more interested in
dealing with the reality of a megacity. This suggests two very distinct interest groups with different
values.

The planning committee hears objections and suggestions

Two different planning committees were established: one for receiving the
objections/suggestions/recommendations on the Development Plan of the Island City and another one
for the suburbs. These committees were distinct from each other: the planning committee for the
Island City was made up of officials (led by an IAS administrator, Mr. Sukhtankar), while the
suburban city planning committee was made up of councillors.28 From 1985 to 1987, the BMC was
suspended for the Island City. When the hearing of objections for the suburban areas was to
commence, the political conditions had changed. Local elections had been held and the municipal
corporation was functioning once again: it was now mandatory to constitute a planning committee
with councillors. Thus the objections for the suburban areas were heard by a multi-party representative
planning committee, unlike the Island City hearings which were held before a panel of only
administrators.
28
Two IAS officers deputed to the MCGM by the state government and two officers of the MCGB - the deputy director of
town planning and deputy city engineer constituted the planning committee for the Island City. The planning committee for
suburbs consisted of five members (all political party representatives); i.e. a standing committee chairman and four
councilors representing different political parties with seats in the corporation.

84
Between 1985 and 1990, the Congress Party was in charge of the Government of Maharashtra and the
Government of India, while Shiv Sena ruled the MCGB. In 1985 and 1986 the five member all-party 29
planning committee of the MCGB set up to look into public grievances on the revised Draft
Development Plan, which recommended deletion of reservation on 1,380 plots (measuring a total of
19,4 square kilometres). The councillors appointed a small committee that came up with a scheme
giving concessions to landowners. The MCGB’s council approved the committee’s recommendations
in just one day and these were sent to the state government . 30 Thus at the local level there is evidence
to show that all the political parties were in consensus over sanctioning concessions to landowners,
although these undermined existing policies.

These changes in plot reservations were brought to light during the Public Interest Litigation (PIL)
filed by civil society groups in 1989, when the state government further de-reserved land plot zones in
favour of landowners. In the majority of the cases the landowners approached the planning committee
through an architect who placed the case of the landowner vs. land tiller before the planning
committee. The request usually was to either delete part of the public zoning from their land so that
they could use it for private purpose or completely change the zoning in a direction that would secure
more profit for the landowner.

Commenting on the changes recommended by the planning committee for the suburban wards, the
D’Souza Committee pointed out some extremes:

• The committee’s ‘considerateness had stretched into caprice…there was an unfortunate

readiness to drop a recreational or educational reservation (particularly the latter), or to
convert into an irrelevant allocation more convenient to the landowner, regardless of the
community need’ (D’Souza Committee Report 1987, 44).
• The planning committee’s decision to convert a part of a plot reserved for recreation into
reservation for a school was ’a spurious adjustment’ that favoured the landowner on condition
that the applicant handed over 30% of the land to BMC free of charge. And in another case the
committee suggested that a No Development Zone (NDZ) plot be converted into a residential
zone and then set out a bargain; instead of the normal practice of demanding 50% of land for
different public amenities it felt that 25% would be adequate in this case.
• Certain claims were upheld by the committee (such as title immunity) because the land
belonged to an original inhabitant of Mumbai.
• The part-release of land plots had no uniformity. In the words of the D’Souza Committee
(1987, 46), ‘We have rejected these bargains, doubting their legality. Moreover, most of these
cases will attract the grant of TDR; the landowners will have the choice of waiting for regular
acquisition against compensation or giving up the land and earning Development Rights
Certificate’.

Looking at newspaper reports and interviews with the architects engaged by private landowners and
builders, it appears that the de-reservation was done in exchange for money. Some newspaper articles
point specifically to the role played by architects and planners as middlemen or agents of private
landowners in this process(Mahesh 1990a; Mishra 1990; Chakravarty 1990). What the media and the
committee overlooked is that corruption only comes to play when there is a dire need that is not being
fulfilled by legal means—thus requiring actors to undertake extralegal actions. This holds true for both
private landowners and their tenants (agricultural or otherwise) who sought relief from the zoning
created stalemate. Another need fulfilled via the de-reservations was the need to secure security of
tenure for the inhabitants of the large number of shacks and wadis (construed on private lands with
expressed permission of the landowner). These shack dwellers were voters of the very political parties
that ruled the municipal corporation and state government; it was in the interest of these political
parties to secure some benefit for their voters.
29
Amarnath Patil of the Shiv Sena chaired the committee; other members were Puspakant Mhatre (Civic Forum), Dr.
Rambesh Prabhoo (Shiv Sena), Indumati Patel (Congress-I) and Ramannand Lad (Congress-S).
30
According to the D’Souza Committee (1987, 43), the ward plans for the twenty-year plan were approved by the MCGM
’after a consideration that took the body not days or hours but minutes’.

85
Analysis of 1,380 de-reservations by MCGM’s planning committee 31

The analysis of 1,380 plots de-reserved in the mid-1980s shows that the de-reserved plots are spread
out across all wards, including sizable numbers in the Island City. 32 C Ward has 142 de-reserved plots
and in E Ward the number of plots de-reserved is 104. In the western suburbs, R Ward has the largest
number of de-reservations (169 plots) while K East and K West have 126 and 127 respectively. With
only 44 plots de-reserved, M Ward is clearly not a preferred ward for de-reservation.

The analysis shows that some types of reservations were not popular with landowners. The largest
number of interventions concerns deletions in zoning of open space amenities—with 77 garden plots,
193 recreational grounds and 129 playgrounds being scrapped. The next largest number of
interventions is to be found in 119 plots reserved for public housing, 56 secondary schools and
playgrounds and 14 No Development Zone (NDZ) areas.

A 10% sample from the total 1,380 plots was further analyzed to assess the specific interests of the
applicants. Using SPSS, a random selection of 10% of the plots (i.e., 103 plots) was made, showing
that 83% of all applicants were private landowners or their representatives. The majority of the
applicants for de-reservation of private lands were landowners, their agricultural tenants/chawl
owners, or land managers who had bought the land rights from the landowners (this category of actor
is also called the Consequent Authority—CA). The analysis showed that a large section of the private
lands not only had multiple tenure claimants, but also had been sold through informal means to
builders. The planning committee members themselves also applied for de-reservation, either as
landowners or on behalf of the squatter settlements. The charities include small local mandals and
bhagani groups.

Table 6.1: De-reservation applicants at the municipal level

Applicants Frequency Percentage

Private (landowner, tenants, CA-builder) 85 83
Government 12 12
Others (elected representatives, political
4 4
parties, religious institutions)
Charity (local mandal and bhagani) 2 2
103 100

Source: (The Government of Maharashtra 1989a)

The analysis of the sample also shows that there is a specific demand of de-reserving only part of the
zone and maintaining the reservation in a section of the zone. Perhaps this is due to the process of
placing reservations across plots of land that may be owned by different individuals (there are three
such cases in the data set). Complete deletion of reservation is requested in 33 of the 103 cases, or
almost one-third of the sample. All ‘public housing’ has been changed to simply ‘housing’. While the
large number of reservations of playgrounds had been deleted, in a few cases the reservation has been

31
This was perhaps the most difficult task of the data collection process. The entire list of de-reservations had been tabled in
the Assembly in 1991, and most of the key actors had a copy; however, no one was willing to share it with researchers. Even
after multiple visits to the Assembly library—which has every document ever tabled in the assembly, including notes on all
discussions—not even they were willing to provide a copy of the report. Finally, it was Mr. Sadashiv Tinaikar—the
municipal commissioner at the time, now retired—who dug it out from his attic full of reports and documents. I am grateful
to him for his invaluable help.
32
As per the first Development Plan a total number of 1,876 plots of land were reserved, 964 were acquired under LAA and
299 under ULCRA, leaving 964 plots to be acquired. A question then arises: How can 1,380 of plots be de-reserved by
government action? Simple mathematics fails here as the plots that were reserved for public amenities in the 1964 plan were
areas that were broken down into smaller plots via a process of land surveys. Thus one single large plot of the 1964 plan
appears as six or more plots under the revised Development Plan. Large plots were broken down into smaller ones due to
varied landownership and tenure, which came to recognized in the process of land surveys. Thus this comparison is not made
in this study.

86
changed into built up structures, such as dispensary or maternity homes. It is lucrative for landowners
to construct public health amenities and sell them to private managers. A shift from ‘industrial’ to
‘commercial’ is also observable amongst the de-reserved plots. This reflects the de-industrialization
the city was going through, with previous land reservations acquiring new functions.

Thus, the analysis of secondary data (newspapers and the list of de-reserved plots recommended by the
planning committee) shows that the planning committee went a step further than its primary task (to
hear objections and recommendations) and in collusion with the Urban Development Department of
the state government undertook changing of the land zonings of land plots that were mostly owned by
private entities. These changed land zoning (full or on a part of the plot of land) were intended to
provide direct benefit to the landowner, who now could use part of the land for commercial
purposes—either for the construction of housing units for sale or for the construction of amenities
which could be run by private sector (and have high exchange value on the market). Another actor
benefiting from the de-reservation of land plots is the squatter settlements living on the said land plot,
provided it was rezoned into public housing. Non-public amenity zoning allows the landowners to
realize the market value of the land: however, the realization of development of a plot of land is a long
and winding process with few guarantees (as we shall see in the next sections).

The chief minister deletes reservations

Other initiatives to delete reservations also took place. In 1989, Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad
Pawar de-reserved another 285 land plots in Bombay itself (in addition to the 1,380 plots mentioned
above, when the plan arrived to the state government for approval. The total area of these plots was
3.8 square kilometres and 950 square yards. Another major land scandal during this time was the state
government’s issuing of permission to change land use. It granted permissions to certain Mumbai
textile mills to dispose of excess land for commercial or residential construction and changed the
reservation in the revised Development Plans for the suburbs (Thakkar 1995). 33 In a similar move, the
chief minister changed the zoning of 20,000 hectares of land from agricultural or ‘green’ to
urbanizable in the Vasai-Virar suburban area of Mumbai. Most of the land in this area belonged to
tribal communities that used it for cultivation and raising fish in the water bodies. Such sweeping
changes were supported by private sector landowners and developers. An analysis of the 285 plots de-
reserved by the state government shows the following trends:

1. The de-reservation of plots is spread throughout all the wards in the city. However, the largest
number of plots is to be found in the K Ward where 25% (N=71) of the de-reserved plots are
located, followed by 12.3% of plots in P Ward (N=35) and 11% in R Wards. This means that
about 48% of the plots are located in the western suburbs.
2. M Ward appears less interesting for de-reservation, having only 7.7% of the 285 plots (N=22).
One of the largest areas rezoned from NDZ to ‘industrial’ (100 acres) is to be found in M
Ward.
3. Some of the larger plots in terms of land area are also to be found in the western suburbs. The
majority of them are NDZ lands, which have been converted either into ‘tourism’ or
‘residential’ uses.
4. Amongst the applicants for de-reservation, the data shows that the largest number of de-
reservations (62% of total applications) was demanded by private actors, followed by
government bodies (26% of the total). What was most surprising was to find was that 22
applications by charities and 10 by elected representatives were made. Of these 10, in 4 cases
the applicant is the same person, an MLA and a minister during that period (see table 6.2).

33
For more details on the mill lands see Adarkar 2008.

87
 5. An analysis of the old reservations shows that a large number of plots brought in for de-
reservations were either NDZ lands (12), Playgrounds (26), Recreation Grounds (36), gardens
(23), public housing (14) and housing for migrants (10).
6. In 164 cases the applicants were demanding that the reservations be deleted, in 9 cases the
change was towards commercial use of the land for shops and markets, and in 25 cases the
demand was to change reservations from public amenities into residential use.

Table 6.2: De-reservation applicants and applications by the state government

Applicants of de-reservation
Actor
Frequency Percentage
Private sector 176 62
Government 75 26
Civil society 22 8
Other
(elected representatives and print 12 4
media )
285 100

Source: (The Government of Maharashtra 1989b)

Thus the data on 285 de-reservations shows that majority of private sector actors tried to reduce or
completely delete open space and public/migrant housing reservations from their lands. In some
instances they tried to change a small part of their reservation or part-reservation, while in other
instance the efforts were to delete the existing open space reservations in order to build on that land.
The NDZ de-reservation shows the efforts of the private sector to shift towards tourism and high-end
users. Two charities demand de-reservation of plots for low-income housing, where one plot is owned
by a private entity and the other by local government.

Another important mechanism used by private landowners was to change NDZ lands to residential
uses. These are lands that should have technically come under the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation
Act (ULCRA) but because they were under the NDZ they were not considered ‘non-buildable’ and
therefore not considered under ULCRA. Also saltpans were considered non-vacant as per the ULCRA,
and therefore were left unclaimed under this act.

Justifying the actions of re-reservations/de-reservations by the state government, the Secretary for
Urban Development at that time, D. T. Joseph, writes, ’When it was seen that the DP for Greater
Bombay was too large, and that a lot of changes had been recommended by the BMC, perhaps interim
measures were thought of…and taken a decision on requests made (by landowners for deletion)…and
inform the applicant that when the government sanctions the DP, the decision would be reflected in
the Plan’ (Joseph 1996, 292).

S. S. Tinaikar, a retired MCGM municipal commissioner, labelled de-reservations as a ‘scandal’, as

the releases of plots for development on case-by-case basis by the government authorities resulted in a
public outcry of mala fide abuse of position and interventions by court, which has prevented the
government tampering with the development plan (pers. com.). Summing up the role of politicians in
land matters, Thakkar highlighted that big plots marked for recreation are de-reserved or allotted to a
fictitious party or are subject to controversial sale, and that politicians played a prominent part in all
these deals (Tinaikar 1996).

The difference between the first set of de-reservations undertaken by the planning committee and the
second set undertaken by the chief minister is that the second set constituted lands that were owned by
large landowners and listed under the ULCRA, which is implemented by the state government. D. T.
Joseph’s argument that it was necessary to de-reserve in the face of delays of passing the Development
Plan falls flat as de-reservations were only another name for exceptions to the ULCRA rules that state

88
government had been dishing out. The only difference was that de-reservations did not require the
engagement of the ULCRA machinery; they could be directly allotted by the office of the Chief
Minister.

What factors contributed to the large-scale liberalization of land by the MCGM, the chief minister and
his office in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region? Was it taking advantage of an opportune moment
when the Development Plan was being revised, or did it have to do with the kind of political
leadership in power in the city and state government? Interestingly, the largest land use changes were
made between 1989 and 1991, coinciding with the reign of Sharad Pawar as the Chief Minister of
Maharashtra. Thus it would be incorrect to claim that it was an opportune moment and that any chief
minister would have done the same as Sharad Pawar. On the contrary, it appears that the answer lies in
the kind of leadership style and class interest that Sharad Pawar represents. Hailing from the most
powerful lobby in Maharashtra (the sugar lobby), he clearly saw himself as a representative of the elite
landowning class and looked for ways to protect his class interest when he liberalized large tracks of
land from the tight controls of the state regime. He also had a reputation as a ‘Young Turk’ among the
political circles, an ambitious politician who came to leadership at a very young age with the desire to
ascend to the national scale. In his long career as politician, he has led two independent political
parties and has walked in and out of the Congress Party several times.

The D’Souza Committee

In 1986, the state government appointed the D’Souza Committee—also known as the Bombay
Development Plan Advisory Committee (BDPAC)—which consisted of four senior government
officials. Although the committee was set up to examine the charges of corruption against the
municipal planning committee, it paid special attention to the development control rules. Part of the
report of this committee was accepted by the government and justified substantial modification to the
development control rules (Joseph 1996).

The D’Souza Committee held a completely one-sided view of the plan for the city: it believed that the
city could be best governed by accepting the special economic role the city has for the state and
nation. Growth should be stimulated through private participation and liberalization of the FSI regime.
It predicted consistent growth of the city: ’Despite the efforts of planners and
environmentalists...Bombay will grow in numbers as well as in economic strength’ (D’Souza
Committee Report 1987, 4). The committee criticised the low FSI of the already developed Island
City, characterizing it as the result of the ‘misguided’ pursuit of the chimera of ’decongestion’, and
also proposed to change some of the NDZ areas into development areas, as it forecast that with the
growing population pressures these areas would be otherwise converted into slum colonies.

Criticizing the planning committee for the ‘bargains’ it struck with landowners, the D’Souza
Committee rejected their proposals. However, softening its stance, the committee proposed TDR and
AR as compensatory measures for landowners: ’In fact, most of our recommendations on individual
objections and suggestions are predicated on the assumption that the part of the Development Control
Rules in relation to TDR as well as our support of the BMC’s concept of “Accommodation
Reservation” (which allows an owner of a library reservation, for instance, to develop the land for his
own use if he provides the BMC with library space) will meet with Government approval. If they do
not, many of our recommendations on individual reservations may appear harsh’ (D’Souza Committee
Report 1987, 44). The significant contribution of the D’Souza Committee was not only in
strengthening the TDR instruments but its further amplification (’widening their application’) of the
MCGB proposal for TDR as given in the draft Development Plan.

Justifying the TDR proposal of the MCGB, the committee sees the proposal as seeking to separate the
development potential of a plot of reserved land from the land itself and thus allowing the owner to
use that potential elsewhere, if he or she has surrendered the land for public use. The committee report
states,

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 TDR offers the government an escape from compulsory acquisition and evens out some of the
discrimination that a development plan inflicts between those whose land is reserved and other
landowners and it reduces the tendency of affected landowners to pressure government and
BMC for a removal of reservation. ...Development rights will accrue to the owner of a plot
reserved for BMC use after he has surrendered it free of encroachments…for which he will get
a Development Right Certificate giving him a Floor Space Index (FSI) credit which he can
either use for himself or transfer to any one…the use on any single plot will, however, be
limited to a FSI of 0.4 over what is normally permitted on the plot. This confines FSI to the
same limit as obtained in the old DC Rule where it applied to road land surrender by the
landowner (D’Souza 1987, 25).

Even while recognizing that the scheme suffers from an important flaw—that it does not ‘discriminate
qualitatively between an acre of reserved land in the Island City or say in Kandivili (northern
suburbs)’—the committee could not find a solution ‘that would be immune to attempts to corrupt it’
(ibid.). The D’Souza Committee saw TDR as a means to solve problems of decaying housing stock
and for owners of plots covered by slums: ’If a landlord is prepared to rebuild an old building and
house in the present occupants he should be encouraged to do so by the offer of Development Rights
which he can use in the same way as if his land were subject to reservation’ (ibid.).

With regards to Accommodation Reservation (AR), the D’Souza Committee supported the idea of
curtailing the total land to be acquired by the MCGB for open spaces, municipal primary schools,
streets, bus depots, fire brigade stations, and sewerage pumping stations. With regard to other
allocations, said the committee, landowners should be able to develop their plots keeping in mind the
rules relevant to the zones where the plots were located. Thus, while the D’Souza Committee set aside
the de-reservations as business deals, it turned the irregular practice into a policy. Namely, AR
allowed part of the land plot (usually one-third) to be zoned for the landowner’s private use, if the rest
of the plot was used for constructing public amenities and was handed over to the municipal
corporation. In a similar move, the committee recommended TDR as compensatory mechanism for
landowners, thus turning earlier irregular practices into policy. However, its efforts in making
landowners pay once again by undertaking development for public purpose under AR was not
welcomed with open arms by the those councillors who functioned as agents of landowners and
builders.

In reaction to this unwillingness, the D’Souza Committee commented that the builders’ suggestions
had been given undue weight in the drafting of the Development Plan. The discussion on the D’Souza
Committee Report gave rise to ugly scenes in the MCGB general body, with the opposition walking
out and a virtual battle of words and blows between the councillors of Shiv Sena and Congress I. The
house was adjourned and complaints and counter-complaints were filed with the police (the Daily 22
August 1986; Thakkar 1995). The allegations of the D’Souza Committee against the municipal
corporation did not go well with Shiv Sena—the ruling party in local government—as it saw the
D’Souza Committee’s efforts in portraying the municipal corporation as the only culprit as a political
act of absolving the Congress-led state government.

While city planners were conservative in their approach and drew plans for a conservative population
growth, working towards reducing congestion in the city and directing growth towards the suburbs,
the members of the D’souza Committee (mostly state government planners and officials) saw a more
expansive role for the city in the near future, in line with the opinions of the political leadership of the
state government.

Environmental groups file Public Interest Litigations

On 11 April 1989, Chandrashekhar Prabhu, a Congress MLA from the Opera House, an electoral
constituency in the Island City, raised objections to the method adopted by the MCGB and the state
government in preparing the Development Plan for Bombay, accusing the planning committee of
corruption. Following his protests in the assembly, Chandrashekhar Prabhu along with fellow

90
Congress ex-councillor Kisan Mehta and others, filed a Writ Petition in 1989 in the Bombay High
Court under the banner of the Save Bombay Committee. This petition challenged the legality of the
state government’s de-reservation of plots reserved for public amenities. Quoting from the
Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, the Save Bombay Committee wanted the court to limit
the powers of the state government in changing the Development Plan as the state government’s role
was only to sanction it—not to bring about further changes in the plan (such as de-reservations). These
activists also insisted that public had the right to receive detailed information on location and
ownership of the de-reserved plots. Under the MRTP Act changes to the plan have to be presented to
the public and the public’s objections and suggestions have to be heard. The petitioners also pointed
out that no such process had been followed by the state government when it de-reserved the plots and
therefore the de-reservations were illegal.

In its judgment, the Bombay High Court ordered the state government to make public the list of de-
reserved plots. Accordingly, the Urban Development Department Secretary presented a list of some
1,000 plots in court by. By filing PILs, the environmental groups became an active actor in the
drafting of the Development Plan. Their interests were to ensure that the rules prescribed by the
MRTP Act were followed and decision-making on planning was open to public view and
participation.

An analysis of four key events in the policymaking process has been presented above, highlighting
key actors that intervened in the urban development planning process. Within sectors too we find that
there are sub-groups that have one-sided opinions on the path that the city should take in the next
twenty years. The Development Plan is seen as an opportunity for actors to be pro-active and voice
their opinion. Some of the actors identified include the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the state
government, councillors of the MCGB, environmental groups, private landowners, builders, city level
planners and engineers, state level town planners, architects, professionals, IAS officers, and land
occupiers/shack dwellers.

With the objective of seeking the perceptions of actors that intervened in the making of the
Development Plan, a bottom-up approach to identifying actors was also undertaken using primary data
collection. The next section will present this bottom-up approach and analyze the actor’s interests,
resources and constraints.

6.3 THE BOTTOM-UP PROCESS OF IDENTIFYING ACTORS

With the objective of taking a closer look at the impact of de-reservations on the local level, a study of
all the de-reservation sites of M Ward was undertaken. I personally visited the de-reserved sites and
documented their current use site-by-site. From the total number of sites visited, one de-reservation
plot was selected for further study. 34 The selection was based on the availability of all actors, and their
expressed willingness to be interviewed. Fulanchiwadi was selected, as the senior leader who had
participated in the de-reservation process, as well as the architect who had presented the request of de-
reservation to the planning committee both expressed their willingness to participate in the study.

Data on the de-reserved plots of M Ward were categorized, based on the type of zoning and the sector
to which the de-reservation applicants belonged. A classification was developed to help locate the
movement of plots from one zone to another. Plots where the zoning was changed to commercial use
are called ‘up-zoning’. Those plots that moved from their earlier status to a public use are categorized
as ‘down-zoning’. The finding show that some plots were up-zoned, changing from public housing to
housing or from industry to commercial. In these cases, the actor desired to change the zoning towards
providing a higher exchange value for themselves or those whom they represented. Changes in de-
reservation that did not appear to bring about much change in the exchange value of the land are called
‘neutral’ in impact. A third category of changes is the correction in maps and boundaries, and
therefore not related to the use or exchange value of the plot of land.

34
This process is called a ‘funneling process’ (see chapter 3 for more details).

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Table 6.3: Zoning and shifts in land value in M Ward

Category Frequency Percentage

Up-zoning 53 79.1
Down-zoning 7 10.4
Map correction 3 4.5
Other (not traceable/neutral) 4 6
Total 67 100

Table 6.4: Landowners and change in zoning in M Ward

Actors/Type of zoning Up Down Other Total

Private landowners/builders 38 3 1 42
Government 7 4 1 12
Civil society (housing co-operatives, different classes) 7 3 10
Other (sports club, not traceable) 1 2 3
Total 53 7 7 67

The fieldwork findings show that only three of the de-reservations can be considered valid as they
were map corrections, while most of the others were undertaken with some specific motive. The vast
majority (79.1%) of de-reservation have been up-zonings, which means that the primary actions of
actors aimed at realizing higher exchange value for themselves or those whom they represented by, as
they requested to de-reserve their lands from public amenities to private use (table 6.3 and 6.4). In the
67 plots partly or completely de-reserved in M Ward, certain trends are noticeable:

• The largest number of plots (nineteen or 28% of the total) was de-reserved from zoning
for housing. The losers were housing for Harijans (Dalits) and plots reserved for open
spaces and educational amenities. The case study of the Lal Dongar plot explores the
impact of the changes in reservation from Harijan housing to housing (see box on case
study of Lal Dongar).
• Eleven plots (16% of total) lost their status of reserved for public housing and four of
these plots were de-reserved for industrial use.
• The reservations lost in this process of change include eleven open spaces and five
educational and sports complexes. One such plot is the Tilak Nagar plot, originally
reserved for a motor training school (see box on Tilak Nagar below).
• The current use of twenty-eight de-reserved plots shows that nine of these plots have been
fenced and locked, four have been put to industrial use, five plots are still left open with
boards announcing developments, five are currently inhabited by slum populations and
five have been converted into high-income housing.

Tilak Nagar plot for a motor training school

The location of the plot

The location of the plot in question is part of a MHADA colony called Tilak Nagar, which consists of
low-income housing high-rise flats all of which are units of 180 square feet each. Even before
independence, this area was widely used by various industries (e.g. Burma Shell) in the
neighbourhood to house their workers. The MHADA housing colonies were constructed only in the
mid-1970s. The plot in question has been carved out of a larger plot used as a playground. The
playground and the plot in question are divided by a stone wall and surrounded from all the sides by
roads. On the side of the playground there is a large asbestos shade with a temple and a small two-
room hut where a Balwadi school operates. Across the road from the plot in question is a line of row
houses constructed for municipal bus drivers.

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Current use of the plot
The plot in question—originally reserved for a garden—was de-reserved for a motor training school
by the MCGB. As of time of writing there has been no construction and a signboard of the
‘International School’ has been put up. The signboard indicates various members of the school board,
including a Congress MLA and Sharad Pawar.

Analysis
MHADA is the landowner of this particular plot and the rest of the area. MCGM has de-reserved it for
a motor training school and given part of the plot to a private trust (owned by politicians) which aims
to set up an international school. The de-reservation of part of the playground appears to be partial up-
zoning, as now it is zoned for construction of a private school. This is how certain plots zoned for
public use are lost.

While the predominant behaviour of all actors is to up-zone there are some differences in behaviour of
private actors and public actors. A very large number of private actors (a titleholder or his
representative) have maximized the use of the de-reservation instrument. Of the twelve plots where
public agencies are identified as the owner, we found that four plots had been down-zoned. Thus it
appears that the predominant behaviour of private sector actors is to up-zone, while government actors
do both up-zoning and down-zoning.

Case Study of Lal Dongar

This area, comprising around 72 hectares, was allotted pre-independence to the Magaswargi
(backward) Dalit community from Marathwada. A housing co-operative society was formed in 1977
for building houses. In 1956 33 families formed a social society but after 1971 the number of families
living on the plot increased, and 30 more families were included as members in what later became the
co-operative.

In 1971, half of the land was a pond; in 1985 it was partly de-reserved to allow builders to make
houses for non-Magaswargi. In exchange, the builder made a contract with the local residents that in
exchange for receiving the pond land he would construct pucca houses as well as carry out repairs and
provide other basic amenities to the residents. Only about half of the 60 members benefited from the
repairs, and a three wing building was constructed in place of the pond. Members who did not benefit
from the developmental or repair works approached the High Court in 2000 and a court order was
passed in the favour of the complainants. However, even now some households are living with just
basic amenities. Because they do not have photo passes and are not considered members of the
housing co-operative, they cannot receive public amenities with the consent of the landowner (in this
case the housing co-operative).

Partial up-zoning for HIG: The case of Fulanchiwadi

A closer look at one of the de-reserved plots (Fulanchiwadi) introduces us to a whole new range of
actors that participated in the de-reservation process. Fulanchiwadi is located in Ghatla Village, a
section of an eastern suburban administrative ward, M East Ward. In Marathi, Fulanchiwadi translates
into ‘flower orchard’, which is precisely what it was in the early 1950s. Parts of it continued to be used
for agriculture till the late 1970s. The total area of the garden was well above 2,000 m². A long-time
resident of the area, Sadanannad Vasudeve Agvekar (age 84), recollects, ‘A section of Fulanchiwadi
was inhabited by the Wadar community who were in the majority here. Towards the corner of the
community some Muslims were living there then and only seven houses belonged to Maharashtrians.
Parts of the land had already been rented out to Bhikaji Baburao Nandesh; he was a tenant of the
Kaskar Kashinath Patil. 35 He grew flowers such as Cherda, Zandu and even some vegetables, such as
brinjals and chilies’.

35
‘Kashkar’ is a farmer who tills the land.

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Ramkant Patil, a seventy-year-old architect, describes the area of Fulanchiwadi in the early 1960s:
‘Ghatla Village and Borla Village much of the land was a fulanchiwadi, a flower orchard, the
landowners here were mostly the original inhabitants of the seven islands, such as Patils, Mhatre,
Gaikwad, Purav, Chemburkar, all Agri caste groups. They gave their lands out to a possessionary
(agricultural tenants) to cultivate their lands’.36

The owner of Fulanchiwadi was Mahimkar, a family of lawyers whose family is said to be living
abroad. Mahimkar belongs to the Agri community too, which traditionally engages in agriculture.
They are one of the few indigenous tribes of Bombay. Mahimkar rented this land to Kashinath Patil,
who in turn rented it out to other sub-tenants. Lands used as flower gardens became reserved as per the
first Development Plan of 1964. In this case they were reserved as green areas, then as per law the
reserved lands were notified and acquired by the local government.

Intervention by the agricultural tenant

In practice, the executors of the Land Acquisition Act recognized the rights of both the landowner and
the agricultural tenant. While the landowner was awarded 80% of the compensation amount for the
land, 20% was awarded to the agricultural tenant. In most cases the landowner—an absentee landlord
with no direct presence or control over the land—was happy to receive 80% of the compensation
amount even if it was not at market rent. However, the agricultural tenants were not happy with their
small share.

With a need to establish their own rights, the agricultural tenants of the land often expanded on the
land by allowing more residential huts to be erected—the initial states of slum formation. The
residents of the slum formed a Community Based Organisation (CBO) and from 1981 to 1984, with
the help of the councillors and the MLA, secured the construction of public toilets. From 1984 to
1989, the number of huts on both Kashinath Patil Wadi and Mukti Nagar doubled, as the CBO leader
recalls with pride:
In 1982 Kashi Nath Patil sold Fulanchiwadi to Mulji Rao, a very rich and famous man, for 85
lakhs. He started fencing his land and building a compound, but Narayan Rane,37 who was a
Shakha Pramukh of the Shiv Sena by that time, stopped the fencing. Simultaneously,
Kashinath Patil’s stepson went to court against the sale and in the meantime slums were
permitted to grow on the disputed land. Narayan Rane’s objective was to encourage slums on
the open areas. From 1982 to 1985, the entire open area, which was a large maidan, was
converted into a slum. Every family that wanted to build a house here had to get permission
from Rane and then pay his then friend Mahindra Patil (who later became the right hand of
Dawood) 38 with additional 1,000 to 2,000 rupees paid to the BMC employees and everyone
was kept happy’. 39

We find that at the plot level reservations and zoning have an influence in terms of restricting the
development of land but they do not stop landowners from either selling part of their land, or
permitting agriculture or the creation of shacks on the reserved plot.

The agricultural tenant of the land, Kashinath Patil, established a network with the local police and the
municipal officers, which allowed him to expand his claim on the land by renting it out. The interest
of the agricultural tenant is to extend the claim over more land and resist the process of acquisition. If
acquisition does happen the tenant stands to lose the most—not only losing tilling rights but also
receiving only 20% of the government’s compensation. In such a scenario, the tenant earns money by

36
Interviewed by author,
37
Narayan Rane, who started his political carrier in this part of the city, grew to be a powerful Shiv Sena councillor. He also
was mayor, and, when Shiv Sena and the BJP alliance came to power in the state government, he was also made Chief
Minister of Maharashtra. He is currently (as of 2008) with the Congress Party and holds the position of Revenue Minister for
the State of Maharashtra.
38
Dawood Ibrahim, who came to prominence in the mid-1970s, is one the most sought after mafia bosses of Bombay.
39
Interview by author

94
creating tenancy, as each tenant pays a deposit and a monthly rent. Further, for protecting their houses
from demolition, the agricultural tenant also collects money from the tenants and pays-off the officers
of the municipal authorities. The agricultural tenant keeps a percentage of these monies as a fee, a fact
that is well known to the residents. Thus it was left to the agricultural tenants, who were recognized by
the local municipal administrators as having legal entitlement to the land, to build bridges with these
officials (see figure 6.2).

In 1985, when the Fulanchiwadi plot was declared as reserved area for gardens under the revised
Development Plan of Bombay, Kashinath Patil moved to influence de-reservation of a part of the land
where his house and adjoining cultivated land was located. A total area of 4,957 m² was requested by
Kashinath Patil to be reserved as ‘housing’ for the construction of middle class housing for Jayveera
Housing Co-operative Society. 40 The agricultural tenant led this process by appointing an architect
who made a presentation to the planning committee justifying the change in reservation. The
agricultural tenant requested that the planning committee reserve a part of Fulanchiwadi as ‘housing’
(figure 6.3). The goal of the agricultural tenant was to up-zone part of this plot. The architect admits
that the agricultural tenant had entered into an agreement to develop Middle-Income Group (MIG)
housing units with a housing co-operative society of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizer Ltd
employees, called Jayveera Housing Co-operative Society. 41

Figure 6.2: The Fulanchiwadi Network (1970s-80s)

• Blue arrows signify direction of influence by money;

• Pink arrows signify protection service provided by one actor to the other;
• Green arrows signify influence by membership of group, political party, committee;
• Red arrows signify exercising influence by force

Ward level officers

Bridging by private sector entities

Agricultural Tenant

Primary Dyadic
Core
Tenants Organization Tenants Local Mafia

Bridging the political sector

Political Party

Intervention by shack dwellers/sub-tenants of the agricultural tenant

Also the sub-tenants formed linkages with existing mafia and an emerging political party that
promised to protect the Marathi Manus (Marathi people) from outsiders. Agvekar, a tenant, even
became a local leader of the Shiv Sena: ’We thought it was a good idea to get Narayan (Rane) to work
with us’. They employed two strategies: (1) they themselves became members of the Shiv Sena and
(2) they created leadership positions for the mafia leaders in the local branch offices (shakhas) of this

40
Data on de-reservations obtained from lists tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly in 1991.
41
Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizer Ltd is a chemical production company owned by the Government of India; it has its
production unit in the Fulanchiwadi neighborhood.

95
new political party. The CBO leader shares, ’Narayan was my child. It was I who brought him to the
Shiv Sena 42.’

The current Shakha Pramukh (head of Shiv Sena’s branch officer) 43 of Election Ward 147 traces back
the kind of work the shakha then undertook: ‘The shakha was formed sometime in the late 1970s when
the area was troubled by local goons who would ask for hafta [weekly protection payments] if people
started repairing their homes just before the monsoons. I remember Kaleshikar was a tadipaar gunda
[head of local goons]. 44 My neighbour was repairing her home and the local gunda asked for hafta, the
poor woman had to pawn her mangalsutra [a piece of jewellery symbolizing marriage] to pay the
goon. He belonged to the Chota Rajan Gang. …the Shakha took on the responsibility to face these
gundas and protect the local population from their terror.’ Over time the network was so strong that it
was even able to subvert the rule of law. Agvekar shares, ‘As we had the muscle power and political
power of the Shiv Sena we were able to retain our houses.’ 45

The resident’s organizations of Mukti Nagar and Kashinath Patil Wadi were more interested in getting
the plot reserved as public housing, thinking that this would protect them from any future evictions.
Using Shiv Sena connections, the resident’s organization influenced the MCGB to rezone 9,280 m²
and another 7,522 m²—orgininally reserved for public gardens and flower gardens and public
housing—and have it reserved only for public housing.

This proposal, favourable to Mukti Nagar residents, was placed before the planning committee of the
MCGB led by a Shiv Sena councillor. This was accepted by the planning committee and as we see in
the section of the Development Plan in figure 6.4, all three amenities exist on the plot of land reserved
for garden, public housing, as well as only housing, and the proposal accommodated interests of all
actors: the private interests of the agricultural tenant, who got a portion of the land for housing; the
occupant’s interests; who got land reserved for public housing; and the public interest, as a part of the
land remained in reservation for a garden.

42
Sadanand Vasudev Agvekar, interviewed by author in May 2007.
43
Avinash Rane, interviewed by author in May 2007
44
A name given to a common offender who is ordered to live outside of the city limits.
45
A similar method of creating tenancies is used by large landowners and their agricultural tenants when their lands were
declared as surplus lands under the urban land ceiling act. In reply to the court case filed by Baburao Samant and others on
the issue of the implementation of the Urban Land Ceiling Act the government affidavit declares that lands owned by
Jeejeebhoy Bheramji have huts built on them. This method of creating settlements of tenants is well established and these
land plots came to be as ‘encumbered lands’ by the government. Until about 1999, a total of 11.14% (see figure) of the total
lands which were acquired by the SLAO of Mumbai were said to be encumbered.

96
Figure 6.3: The Fulanchiwadi network period (1981-1991)

97
Figure 6.4: Development Plan showing Fulanchiwadi with amenity reservations

Kashinath Patil
Wadi on site
occupancy

Fulanchiwadi
(legal records)

Mukti Nagar
on site
occupancy

Ghatla
Village

The case study of Fulanchiwadi shows that at the local level there are actors that are not visible if one
only examines the city level policy process, as some actors (e.g., local political leaders, mafia/local
goons, shack dwellers/sub-tenants) do not emerge as visible actors at the city level. Furthermore, the
landowner itself is not a single person but is comprised of two or even three different tenancy holders
(such as the title holder, the agricultural tenant and other sub-tenants), all with different degrees of
ownership—some recognized by law and others not.

The Fulanchiwadi case also raises some important issues and questions related to planning and how it
can be undertaken for lands already occupied and used for non-urban functions. Another issue is the
significant gaps in the older forms of planning and the lives of marginalized urban population living
informality on the plot. Will these new forms of planning and service delivery be able to fill the gap
between the different classes and socio-economic fragmentation of the city? Will the new techno-
managerial planners be better prepared to deal with conflicting rationalities between state and the
various actors on the market? These questions can only be answered once we have assessed the
performance of the market instruments in planning and service provision. Table 6.5 gives the total
number of actors identified by three different sources of data. The table shows that the largest number
of actors is from the state sector, with a few actors belonging to the private sector and civil society.
The bottom-up approach revealed actors not identified in the top-down approach. In fact rather than
being two different approaches, it appears that they are actually different scale levels of interfaces
between actors. Where the planning committee and municipal government is the middle scale; the
Fulanchiwadi community networks negotiating between shack dwellers, agricultural tenants and local

98
leaders reflects the micro-scale: and the negotiations with the state government or petitions filed by
environmentalist are the macro-scale of interfaces. Perhaps there are more, but they would need to be
further examined outside of this study. In the following section, the resources, interests, and
constraints of these actors will be examined.

Table 6.5: Actors according to sector

In practice
Sector Actors In law
Top- Bottom-
down up
Public Chief Minister Yes Yes
Public Minister of Urban Development Yes Yes
Public MLA's Yes Yes
Officer appointed to receive objections and
Public Yes Yes
recommendations
Public Director of Town Planning Yes Yes
Public Planning Committee of Local Government Yes Yes
Public Planning officials of local government Yes Yes
Civil society/Private General public raising objections Yes Yes
Private Landowners (public and private) Yes Yes Yes
Public Service providers (public) Yes Yes
Private Service providers (private) Yes
Private Builders Yes Yes
Private Land occupiers (squatters) Yes Yes
Public Councillors Yes
Public IAS officers Yes
Civil society Environmental organizations Yes
Civil society/Private Organizations of planners and engineers Yes
Public Political parties and their leaders Yes Yes
Private Mafia Yes
Private Agricultural tenants Yes
Private Sub-tenants Yes

6.4 THE ACTORS’ INTERESTS AND CONSTRAINTS

Actors in the public sector

Planners and engineers

Identifying the limitations faced by city planners, D. T. Joseph shares, ‘A development plan depends
on how well and precisely the existing land use plan has been prepared. City survey records, aerial
photography and satellite imagery could be used for this purpose. But in the case of the revised
Development Plan of Greater Bombay, only the city survey records have been used. Naturally, this has
not been updated, and hence sometimes the reservation/designation turns out to be unrealistic’ (Joseph
1996, 289).

Two of the three planners (Mr. Athale, Mr. Panthbalkundri and Mr. Pathak) who participated in the
drafting of the Development Plan were interviewed for this study. 46 Two of them held a BS in
Engineering and had continued their education with a MS in Planning. One of them was deputed from
the local government to complete his education at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA); his
master’s study was a direct contribution to developing the norms used for public amenities. It would
be rash to generalize, but it is generally a practice with the local bodies to depute municipal engineers
to the SPA, to gain skills in planning and contribute to the Development Plan. Municipal planners
46
Interviewed by author, April 2007.

99
generally play a supportive role to the planning officers who are deputed from the State Government
Agency of Town Planning.

Thus, the municipal corporation overcame its lack of adequate human resources for undertaking the
planning exercise, by deputing their engineers to gain the required skills. The interests of the
engineering group are well connected with the interests of the builders and contractors that they sought
to fulfil even as they designed the plans. The ideas and proposals from professional organizations
(such as PEATA) were easily accepted, co-created and experimented with (a well-entrenched practice
as shown in earlier chapters).

All the three planners who played important drafting roles in the revised Development Plan are now
working for the private sector. One of them held a position of vice-president with a big builder in
Mumbai, the other worked for a large private industrial house seeking to acquire land for an industrial
Special Economic Zone (SEZ), and the third held a position with a consultancy firm.

It appears that it is in the long-term interests of the planners to satisfy the interests of the association
they belong to. So even though they had been educated in planning norms and standards, they were
well aware of the limitations and strengths of realizing a blueprint plan, and therefore they were
conservative in their projection of population growth of the city and chose to work as representatives
and agents of professional associations to bring experiments that were carried out in the shadows of
the local government into light by transforming them into formal rules.

IAS officers as planners

The most influential officers who contributed to the Development Plan were organized under the two
committees: the J. B. D’Souza Committee and the Shrinivasan Committee. The majority of them were
IAS officers, secretaries to various state departments (Law, Bombay Port Trust Chairman, Housing
Secretary, Secretary Industry, Secretary Technical Education). J. B. D’Souza was a retired IAS officer,
and former Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai and Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister of
Maharashtra. V. K. Pathak was the only planner on the committee, serving as Chief Planner of the
BMRDA at the time. The convener of the Shrinivasan Committee, Mr. D. T Joseph, was Secretary for
Urban Development of Maharashtra; holding a BA and MA degree in English literature, he referred to
himself as a ‘generalist’. 47

The self-articulated objective of the D’Souza Committee was, ’to identify city development policies to
promote and sustain growth with social justice in a resource efficient manner’ (D’Souza 1987, 7). But
their resources were limited in terms of the allotted time for preparing reports and finances for
investigating alleged irregularities in the municipal planning committee. Other self-identified
shortcomings were their limited powers as they were not allowed to introduce new designation or
reservations on land, and their inability to inspect reservations physically within the set time limit.

The D’Souza Committee went beyond its immediate mandate and commented on the shortcomings of
the Draft Development Plan. Its constraint was that it could not turn a controlling perspective in its
mandate into a growth-led one; however, it was successful in sowing the seeds of future policy
changes. The committee’s report appears very brief and hurriedly completed in terms of the proposed
recommendations for the vision and growth for the city. The Srinivasan Committee worked for a
longer period and became the ultimate body to sanction the plan ward by ward. It was also the
committee that undertook the writing of the development control rules for Bombay.

Clearly as the planning process moves upwards towards the state government, the IAS officers play a
primary role—not only in sanctioning but also in planning. The D’Souza Committee was constituted
of both planners as well as IAS officers, with planners in the minority; the chairing J. B. D’Souza
himself was not a planner.

47
Talk given to students of School of Planning, Thane Municipal Corporation, on 10 September 2008.

100
A hostel for MLAs?

A primary school and trust called Balkalyani existed on the land owned by the state government at
Malabar Hill. In 1989, the plot of land on which the school and trust existed was allotted to a
government employees’ housing co-operative society, called Angarki Co-operative Society. In July
1989, Balkalyani trustees filed a writ petition accusing Mr. Sharad Pawar of misallocation of certain
lands to a co-operative society of IAS and other officers. The court charged him with ‘mala fide in the
performance of his duties and thus acting against his oath by the constitution’ and further condemned
him for ‘resisting from the solemn duty of protecting state property and ensuring compliance with the
legal provision by throwing to the winds all basic principles’ (Judgment, Bombay High Court, 9 July
1992).

A sixty-nine page judgment was passed by the Bombay High Court. The judges strongly criticized the
nexus between politicians and bureaucrats, which hampered the proper functioning of the government
and the protection of weaker elements of society. On 31 September 1992, when Sharad Pawar was
Defence Minister, a veteran Union leader and Member of state Parliament, George Fernandes,
presented the court judgment in the Lok Sabha demanding Sharad Pawar’s resignation. In his reply to
parliament, Sharad Pawar brought to the notice of the parliamentarians that the chief promoter of
Angarki Co-operative Society had applied for allotment of plot in July 1986 and the then ministers had
already cleared the allotment before his time as a Chief Minister. George Fernandes and others pointed
out that everyone who scrutinized the allocation also received land—a total of fourteen plots had been
dispersed in this process.

The Angarki Co-operative Society appealed against the judgment of the High Court in the Supreme
Court of India and the on 31 December 1996, the Supreme Court upheld the judgment of the High
Court and agreed with the High Court which had stated the proceedings of the plot to be illegal. The
Supreme Court also noted that the actions of the state government in allotting the plot were arbitrary,
dismissed the case and ordered the state government to pay the costs of Rs.25,000 to the primary
school. The Supreme Court pointed to the role of the IAS officers in creating this plot by rezoning
government land and allotting it to themselves: ‘There is can be no doubt but for the status and
position of Ranganathan was holding it could not have happened. Ranganathan was personally
interested in the allotment of the plot for the society of which he was a promoter. Ranganathan himself
was secretary in the Department of Revenue, the collector and all other officers were his colleagues
and subordinates. We have no hesitation in holding that there was a patent clash of interest and duties
of Ranganathan’ (Judgment, The Supreme Court of India, 31 December, 1996).

Among the most important officers during that period were Mr. Shrinivas, Mr. Afzalpurkar and Mr.
Tinaikar, all of whom have procured very large apartments in an IAS officers housing society, mere
100 meters to the south of the state government secretariat. Securing permanent housing in Mumbai in
the high-priced Island City areas is the aspiration of most IAS officers. Their aspirations can become a
reality only when politicians sanction plots of land to housing co-operatives promoted by IAS officers.
Angarki Housing Co-operative appealed to the chief minister to allot it a piece of land located in the
upscale neighbourhood of Malabar Hill and directly benefited from the 1989 de-reservations of plots.

Similar collective efforts were taken up by senior government officials (such as IAS officers, police
officers as well as judges), whose sole interest was to gain spacious housing in pristine
neighbourhoods. Furthermore, the state government IAS officers held a very liberal vision of growth
for the city, both in economic and population terms. This common idea guided their interventions in
the planning process.

The Chief Minister: Interest, resource and constraints

Land deals and the use of Bombay’s land and exemptions as sources for political party revenue is
nothing new, and much has been written about both the land scam of the Backbay Reclamation in the
1970s and the ULCRA exemptions since the late 1970s.

101
What was distinctly different here was the quantum of land deals (de-reservations), their spread over
the entire region and, most importantly, the fact that the de-reservations created an environment where
liberal ideas of land management were more easily embraced by all actors than would have normally
been the case. The extent of the practices and their continuation over time—which turned practices
into policies—requires a combination of risk taking ability and power to hold to the position—a rare
combination for any chief minister to have. The leadership and the interests upheld by the chief
minister appear to play a significant role in urban regime change.

Between 1985 and 1993, Maharashtra went through chaotic political times as one chief minister
followed another in quick succession. Of the five chief ministers who headed the state during this
period, Sharad Pawar held two of the longest tenures, one from 1988 to 1991 and then from early 1993
to 1995. Enjoying sufficient time as the dominant political leader of Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar was
able to launch a variant of ‘liberalization’ in the state, long before it happened in the rest of the
country. Sharad Pawar brought in a unique combination of skills as well as strong networks with state
government, central government, the political elite and the entrepreneurial class (builders and
landowners). This empowered him to do what other chief ministers could not have done—to liberalize
land policies (Narayanan 2003; Banerjee-Guha 1995; Sainath 1999). This is not surprising, as Sharad
Pawar himself belongs to the landowning and industrial class, coming from Baramati the sugar-
growing region of Maharashtra. He also has been a key negotiator for the sugar lobby of Maharashtra.

Sharad Pawar started his political career in Maharashtra at the young age of twenty-seven when he
was elected to the state assembly. Other than holding various posts, for example Minister for Home,
Food and Civil Supplies, he has also been the Chief Minister of Maharashtra thrice (July 1978 to
February 1980, June 1988 to June 1991, and last from early 1993 to 1995). He was also Defence
Minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and is currently India’s Agriculture Minister. He was
also one among the three candidates shortlisted by the Congress Party for the powerful position of
Prime Minister of India after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. A maverick politician, he moved in
his political career from one party to the other and even started two parties: the now defunct Congress
(S) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which along with the Congress Party is currently in
power in Maharashtra (Ravindranath 1992).

Sharad Pawar’s power lies in his exceptional leadership style (dictated by the maxim ‘no permanent
enemies and no permanent friends’), keen negotiating skills and patronization of upcoming politicians
of promise. Highly ambitious, he aspired to be Prime Minister of India, and it was this ambition which
probably drove him to take a number of steps towards liberalization as well as starting economic and
liberal political reform in Maharashtra much earlier than it occurred in the rest of the country). Some
prominent examples include reservation of 30% seats in local bodies for women, or the passing of the
women policy and the introduction of liberal land policies. Sharad Pawar championed Singapore as a
model-city for Bombay’s development into a global city.

Pawar’s power was reinforced by two of his strongest allies: a large section of the media that swears
by him and his ties with Shiv Sena’s chief Bal Thackeray. Pawar owns a Marathi daily Sakal, and his
generosity in charitable causes has spawned several anecdotes, regarding his monetary assistance to
ailing journalists or even an opposition political leader who fell ill and was hospitalized. P. Sainath,
commenting on the secretive supportive relationship between Pawar and the Shiv Sena, writes,
’Whenever he [Pawar] was sidelined in the Congress (I), Pawar played ‘footsie’ with Shiv Sena chief
Bal Thackeray, aiding him in giving hell to Congress (I). There have been times when a gasping Shiv
Sena found new wind with his assistance’ (Sainath 1999) . Recalling the role played by Sharad Pawar,
Tinaikar 48 called him ’the biggest collector’, meaning the contributions that chief ministers of every
state are required to provide to the party bosses. It is no simple task to start a breakaway political party
from the Congress Party. The survival and expansion of the PWP to other parts of Maharashtra needed
funds and these financial interests played a large role in the decisions that Pawar took to de-reserve
plots in Mumbai.

48
Author’s interview with Mr. Sadashiv Tiniakar, former Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai, 15 April 2007.

102
Councillors and their planning committee: Interests, resources and constraints

Numerous political parties participate actively in the elections of the municipal corporation—twenty
parties in the 1948-1992 period, according to Thakkar (1995). Given the political culture of Mumbai,
where only 30%-40% of the population votes and majority of the voters are from slums or have a
working class background, there is fierce competition at the local slum level. Some communities
dominated by one Jati have strong loyalties to a political party, which in turn promises to take up their
interests (e.g., the Republic Party is known for its commitment to the cause of Dalits, who have
become Buddhists). Such block voting communities tend to cluster together so that their votes can
collectively bring a political office, which they hope will translate into receiving better amenities or
other services. The common interest of all political parties is to ensure that their candidates receive the
largest number of votes, thus securing and/or retaining a seat in the municipal corporation term after
term.

Mumbai was a Congress Party stronghold till 1968, when the Shiv Sena emerged. Based on the ‘sons
of the soil’ movement, Shiv Sena drew supporters from a small section of the Marathi-speaking
middle class and a growing number of shack dwellers. In 1985, Shiv Sena won the largest number of
seats (74) in the MCGB. The Congress Party was the second largest opposition party with 37 seats, the
BJP had 13 seats, and 10 seats went to the Janata Party.

By the mid-1980s, the Congress Party had lost its post-independence charm, partially due to Indira
Gandhi’s excesses. It also came be to viewed more as representative of the rural landed communities
and urban middle class than of the poor. Until the late 1990s, the conflict for control of local
government in Mumbai was essentially a two party tussle between the Congress and Shiv Sena. Both
parties had conflicting views on a number of issues but a common perspective on the city’s growth
perspective. Further, as all political parties in local self-government realize, they need to work closely
with the political leadership of the state government and the IAS officers’ lobby, which has for
historical reasons always been close to the Congress Party. For similar reasons, Shiv Sena built an
understanding with the Congress leadership over time.

The design of various committees in the municipal corporation requires for representatives of the
largest parties in the house to work together. Thus the planning committee, set up to hear objections to
the revised Development Plan, included one member from each political party with seats in the
MCGB. Despite their ideological and party differences, the members of the planning committee had a
common interest and appeared to have little problem to function as a collective (there were only scarce
media reports of internal conflicts). Two common interests reduced the differences between the
various members of the planning committee. One was the fee received for de-reservation of every
square meter of land, openly written about in newspapers and spoken about in the MCGB’s general
body. The other was the deletion of amenity zoning from lands occupied by slums and reserving these
plots for housing purposes. The deletion of amenity zoning from land occupied by slums not only
benefited the councillors and their voters but also helped the party raise funds, as their actions also
benefited the landowner/builder. Fulanchiwadi is a good example of these overlapping interests among
the agricultural tenants, the shack dwellers and the political leaders of the area. All councillors and
political parties could gain from the de-reservation process by offering services to their voters they
consolidated their constituency and thus ensuring their own future as political leaders.

The largest constraint faced by the planning committee was that the changes they proposed could be
only recommendations. To become policy, these recommendations needed support from the MCGB
general body, the municipal commissioner as well as from the engineers and planners. Finally, the
recommendations would need approval of the state government, the ultimate authority for the
Development Plan. Thus to ensure that the recommendations became policy, they had to become part
of a coalition which together could create consensus for the change.

103
Actors in Private Sector

Private landowners

It is estimated that about 51% of land in Bombay was privately owned in the 1980s (MCGB 1985).
The landowner is also known as the titleholder whose name appears on the property card of the land.
Landowners can be categorized as large, medium and small landowners. 49

Large landowners are said to be one of the most powerful private actors in Mumbai. The Gazetteer of
Maharashtra tracks the large tracts of lands in Mumbai given in the eighteenth and nineteenth century
to some Parsi families for their contributions to British rulers. The size of lands owned by large
landowners on average falls above 100 acres per private entity. In addition, the Khots were also
holders of large pieces of lands in Mumbai. Some of the big landowners were also large industrialists
with close ties to national level political parties. Prominent large landowning families include Godrej,
F. E. Dinshaw, Jeejeebhoy Byramjee, Soli Engineer, Fali Bomanji, Godrej Soaps, A. H. Wadia, and
Khot.

In 1976, the Government of India passed the ULCRA, applicable to all private landowners, obliging
them to surrender open lands measuring more than 500 m². In response, these landowners
metamorphosed into family trusts to seek exemptions and protections under this act (e.g., Dinsha
Wacha Trust and Gaorakshan Trust).50 In a number of cases, land acquisition was avoided by going to
the courts or encouraging squatting on the open lands. Unable to change the ULCRA, several private
landowners sold their lands at low prices to developers and builders. For instance, parts of land once
owned by F. E. Dinshaw now belongs to Raheja Builders; similarly the S. F. Engineer Group sold
their lands to a number of builders, including Thakur, Evershine and Gundecha. In some cases,
landowners themselves became builders, as in the case of Godrej. From a government reply to a PIL
submitted to the Mumbai High Court by the Collector of Mumbai, it is seen that there are 12 very
large landowners in Mumbai. These large landowners have not participated in delivering public
amenities to those living on their lands, nor has the state forced them to do so. Instead, the state has
allowed these large landowners to get away with non-compliance.

Medium size private landowners (with 10 to 99 acres) whose land came under reservation under the
Development Plan also undertook a similar exercise. By the mid-1980s, the main private landowners
were no longer the Parsi or Muslim families. They had sold their lands as they found that they did not
have the knowledge, skill and resources required for land management and dealing with home grown
politicians. These lands were bought by builders—mostly Sindhi (Hiranandani and Raheja) or from
other entrepreneurial communities—who sought means to develop land in such a manner as to earn
huge profits over a long period time. About 70% of privately held land in Mumbai is owned by owners
of medium-sized plots. According to a government affidavit,51 the total number of such landholders is
268. These landowners are individuals, family trusts or companies, and together they own 70.6% of
private land declared surplus under the ULCRA. The private landowners who claim ownership over
some 34 textile mills also are included amongst the middle size plot owners. This is another section of
the landed class that has influenced development control rules seeking to allow redevelopment of these
lands. There is an overlap between textile mill owners and large landowners. Plots below 9 acres
constitute 11.6% of privately owned land in Mumbai. Owners of these plots have shown the most
interest in undertaking housing projects under sections 20 and 21 of the ULCRA. This is perhaps due
to the fact that they have no other source of income and need to realize the gains from their lands, or
because these lands are now owned by owners with building experience.

49
There is no single source of data that gives a clear picture of landowners and the quantum of land owned by them. I have
used two different sources of data to understand and categorise landowners as per the amount of land they own. Thus the
findings are only indicative and not definitive.
50
For instance section 19 of the ULCRA exempts landowners from surrendering their land, if they are trusts undertaking
philanthropic works.
51
Submitted to court in response to the Public Interest Litigation filed by Babu Rao Samant and others demanding that the
state government implement the ULCRA.

104
Most large landowners were not interested in developing their lands but were keen to find means by
which their land could be protected from acquisition by the state. Landowners who were builders were
interested in getting their lands out of amenity zoning. Similarly, agricultural tenants’ interest was to
get some portion of the land de-reserved so that they could bring it under their direct use. In short, all
landowners were interested in acquiring direct control over land. The resources large landowners used
for this end were their ownership of land and industries (Godrej, Wadia, owner of Bombay Dyeing),
which gave them financial power, as well as their longstanding relationship with national and state
level politicians. Their main constraint was their limited access and distrust of newly emerging
political parties, such as the Shiv Sena and its allies, which threatened to disturb their relationships
with the Congress Party.

The original agricultural landlords preferred to sell their holdings as they did not have the means to
influence government and found it difficult to hold on to the land. Over time (especially during the
1980s), farmers or/and titleholders sold their land to builders. This shift of landownership from user to
entrepreneur put the builders in the position of owners of capital assets and primary stakeholders in the
development of these lands. Despite reservation, LAA and ULCRA, changes in landownership was
known to occur and was sustained and informally recognized by the state by giving the new buyers the
status of Consequent Authority (CA)—a legal term that partly recognizes the transfer of ULCRA land
to another private person. This phenomenon of small and medium landowners selling part or all their
lands to builders has been reported by some of the architects interviewed in this study. In most cases
the CA was a builder who had interest in developing the land for private profit.(Chandrashekhar
Prabhu, Chandrashekhar Deshpande and Ramkant Patil).

Builders and their organizations

Builders are individual entrepreneurs who buy private lands and construct housing units on them, in
order to sell them on the open market. Initially a small group, builders came into the limelight in the
1970s with the Backbay Reclamation scam.

Builders are generally identified by the scale of their projects. Large builders undertake large land or
greenfield developments, which often require amalgamation of small plots to develop large townships.
Then there are builders who develop individual plots of land and builders known for redeveloping old
buildings, mostly in the Island City. Large builders who had profited from the Back Bay Reclamation
scheme and diverted ULCRA plots to private use (e.g., Hiranandani in Powai and Raheja in Oshiwara)
built strong networks with all sectors of the state and local governments, in addition to benefiting from
their access to land and financial resources. One of the oldest organizations of builders in Maharashtra
is the Association of Building Industry of Maharashtra (ABIM). In the words of an official of the
association, ’It was a pure developers group, with builders such as Maker, Mittal, Hiranandani,
Raheja, Tulsiani. It was formed in 1973.’ 52 All of these large builders benefitted from the Back Bay
Reclamation. In 1982, the single-plot builders split from the ABIM over a struggle for ‘leadership’ and
formed a new organization called the Builder, Developer, Planners Association, which included all
categories of building entrepreneur and professional actor (except landowner).

Both organizations, however, came together during the 1985 negotiations with the local and state
governments over de-reservation of plots and the revised Development Plan, and in 1989 they merged
to form the Maharashtra Chambers of Housing and Industry (MCHI), which describes itself as a
voluntary association of developers. Contractors are not a part of MCHI but there is an overlap of
some of the MCHI members with Builders Association of India (BAI). BAI is one of the oldest
associations of government contractors and builders. 53 Also at the national level builders associations
have formed a strong platform to lobby for changes in central government policies. This organization

52
Interview Ravi Najar, officer at the Maharashtra Chambers of Housing and Industry, interviewed by author in May 2007.
53
A builder is someone who owns the land and also has the capital to undertake construction on it. A contractor is someone
who only undertakes construction on land owned by someone else.

105
is called the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), and there are
a number of large builders from Mumbai amongst its leadership.

Then there is the Practicing Engineers and Architects and Town Planners Association (PEATA),
known to advocate builders’ causes behind the scenes (Narayan 2003). Builders are also members of
PEATA, formed in the mid-1960s originally to represent licensed surveyors who did not have a forum.
PEATA is known for its ability to create a space for ’innovative interpretations of urban land
policies’—i.e. bending the rules for the benefit of its members—by taking its members’ proposals to
the MCGM. It is said that a certain large builder played a key role in setting up PEATA as he wanted a
space, ’where creative interpretations of the DC rules could be made’. Today PEATA includes
professionals who are also employees of local government. A majority of the interviewed
professionals believed that it is essential to secure PEATA membership if one wants to do business in
Mumbai. PEATA’s power is believed to lie in its close links with the building and planning
department of the MCGM. PEATA has replicated the hierarchy of the MCGM by creating its own
sub-committees in the zonal offices of the Building Proposals Department, thereby effectively creating
space to intermingle with officials from different levels of MCGM.

As a result, close cliques of professionals with certain MCGM officers developed. According to a
PEATA member, these networks became very important: ‘One will find that certain officers keep
rotating back to the same office and some professionals became experts of specific developmental
fields, for example GL Raheja, a big builder works in the western suburbs, Babladi and Ranjit Naik in
slums.’ 54 Indicating that the clique of professionals from MCGM and PEATA not only engaged in
changing the rules of development but also engaged in selecting personnel to lead certain
developmental projects or zones. Further, the hierarchy of the municipal corporation was mirrored in a
structure of PEATA, thus facilitating dialogue between the two institutions.

Builders had very clear interests—to develop plots with higher FSI so that higher profits could be
made in better-priced areas, located in the northern and western suburbs of Mumbai. Together with
PEATA they possessed a vast knowledge of development control rules and close ties with local and
state government officials. Their main constraint in the early 1980s was the existing rigid framework
of land acquisition laws and rules, which provided unattractive compensation packages to the
landowners, thereby restricting land supply in the market. One big builder in nexus with MCGM
officers had already experimented with TDR, whereby he was offered TDR in exchange of a plot of
land zoned for a playground. However, as no policy existed to support this experiment, the entire
exercise was treated as an irregularity, a FSI scam (Tinaikar 1996; Thakkar 1995). PEATA was well
aware of this action, as several builders were vehement promoters and supporters of this idea.

Land occupiers

On the basis of their legal status, land occupiers can be categorized as tenants, sub-tenants, slum
dwellers and pavement dwellers. Their use of tenements and land plots can be divided into four broad
categories: only residential, only commercial, agricultural and mixed. It was estimated that the slum
population (which numbered 83,500 households in 1957) had grown to seven million households in
1984 (D’Souza Committee Report 1987).

Land occupiers: Tenants

Land occupiers are accepted as legal tenants in tenanted properties, a majority of which are in the
Island City. In the suburbs and extended suburbs tenancies created after independence do not have the
same protection as those in the Island City. These new tenants were declared ‘encroaching settlers’
under the Development Plan, as this land had been reserved by local government for some other
purpose. As they were in violation of the development plans, such tenants were required to pay
compensation to local government for encroaching on the agricultural tenant’s lands.

54
Interview with a member of PEATA, May 2007.

106
Thus, while the tenants of Latif Compound (see box below) were recognized as legal tenants and
could seek protection under the Rent Act, the tenants of Fulanchiwadi were declared encroachers. The
rights of the tenants are directly related to the rights of the landowner. In Fulanchiwadi the rights of
the agricultural tenants were questioned as local government was establishing its own rights over the
same plots.

Latif Compound
The plot is situated in the F South Ward of the Island City of Mumbai. It is identified as C. S. No. 65
of Dadar Naigaon Division, measuring 3,718 m². This plot of land was reserved, along with few other
adjacent plots, for public use as recreation grounds in the sanctioned Development Plan of 1967. The
land is situated in the residential zone also known as a market area. It took 40 years—more than three
development plan periods—to finally acquire the 3,718 m² reserved.

In the case of Fulanchiwadi, the occupiers organized themselves in various organizations, under the
banner of residents’ organizations or tenants’ organizations, and affiliated themselves to political
parties, thus gaining influence through political power. They sought to have their community officially
declared a slum area under the Maharashtra Slum Improvement and Re-development Act. An
important feature of this act is that it set a cut-off date for those slum households to be considered
eligible slum dwellers. The cut-off date is set by the state government and is often extended before
every assembly election. Demolition has been the single most used strategy of landowners (including
government) to keep their lands from being further encroached.

Subletting is known to exist in all settlements, although subletting in slum areas is not recognized by
law (which only recognizes occupancies). Subletting is usually for a period of eleven months against a
large deposit and a monthly rent. The 2001 census on household ownership and size shows that of the
total number of 1,774,332 households in the city 382,578 households (22%) live in rented houses. Of
these, 8% do not have any exclusive room and 68% have a single room (Census of Mumbai 2001).

Government lands have also been occupied by settlers. Surveys by government and NGOs have
identified such occupiers on lands owned by the local, state and central government. Some of these
occupiers are on lands considered essential infrastructure for the functioning of the city (i.e.,
pavements, railway lines, roads, and forest lands). These occupiers have been treated differently from
slum dwellers, with little official tolerance and regular demolitions (Patel 2005).

Occupiers of the land were interested in ensuring that they would not be evicted from their houses and
would be provided with public amenities. As these occupiers were clustered together and usually in
large numbers, their main resource was their right to vote, which they used to bargain with political
leaders in exchange for public amenities and land tenure. This is a common feature in the political
economy of India where slum residents in urban areas seek to affiliate themselves to a political party,
as a means of exercising influence over land tenure and amenities (Baud and de Wit 2008). While
most political parties prefer to work on securing tenure for the land occupied by slum dwellers, the
socialist Janata Dal tried a different route. In response to the 1976 ULCRA, Mrinal Gore and Baburao
Samant of the Socialist Party organized slum dwellers and tenants under the banner of Nagrik Niwa
Parishad to demand land under ULCRA for housing. They were successful in their effort and were
promised a large section of land at Goregaon in P South Ward. In the slum areas of Fulanchiwadi in
the early 1980s, many youth and men became members of the Shiv Sena, as they were attracted to the
party’s charismatic leader. They perceived the Shiv Sena as a party that would stand up for their
rights. Some of the occupants were also direct tenants of the agricultural tenant and they felt that if the
agricultural tenant were given rights to the land then they would be ensured security of tenure.
However, the process of influencing city level planners was not easy and required information on how
and where to best to use influence and find the means to finance intermediaries. Also they were
constrained by political splits amongst themselves as not all occupiers supported the same political
party.

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Mafia

‘Mafia’, ‘don’ and ‘gunda’ are the terms used to address an individual or group that use illegal
means—violence, threats and blackmail—to make profits. Thus they either carry out these activities
on behalf of a patron or for their own direct benefit. Two types of mafia are active in squatter colonies.
One is known as dada or bhai (brother), and sees itself as protectors or of the vulnerable and
powerless against abuse, regardless whether the perpetrator is another gunda or the landowner, The
other is an opportunistic intermediary that uses violence to claim territory and terror to gather money.
The first category enjoys high social standing in the community, while the other is considered a threat
by the residents.

The criminal is also perceived as a victim by the squatters. Dons at the community level are known to
enjoy the status of social leaders and often make a transition to formal political activity. Much of the
Shiv Sena’s leadership has emerged from community leaders who engaged in gang-like activities
(including protection, settlement of disputes, enforcement of agreements and expulsions from
properties) (Pendse 2003). This also holds true for other political parties. As a result, several political
leaders who emerged from the gangs have strong connections with the organized crime world of the
city. Narayan Rane is said to belong to the Harya Naraya gang (Naraya was the short name used for
Narayan).

The mafia, which is an active actor in influencing the Development Plan as shown by the
Fulanchiwadi case study, are the don-leaders. The don-leaders are identified as the Shiv Sena head of
the shakha; their interest is to protect the land occupiers/squatters, whom they view as victims of state
indifference, in exchange for money. These don-leaders gained strength and political power by being
invited into the Shiv Sena. Their biggest challenges are combating the existing gangs that operate on a
particular territory and limited knowledge of the local and state government laws and regulations.

Civil society

Although as per law the general public is invited to raise their objections and give their
recommendations, in reality the majority of the objections received against the ULCRA were from
private landowners, primarily as demands for de-reservations. A small number of civil society
organizations also participated in submitting their recommendations and raising objections. The
following paragraphs analyze two categories of civil society groups that were active in influencing the
Development Plan: squatter’s organizations and environmental groups.

Civil society: Shack dwellers’ organizations

Starting with the national emergency in the late 1970s and lasting until the early 1980s, many forced
relocations and evictions took place in large cities of India. In Bombay itself, the Janata Colony was
relocated outside the BARC colony, followed by the 1984 large-scale demolitions of pavement
dwellers (Banerjee-Guha 2007). The demolitions of pavement dwellers’ homes drew substantial
attention from the media as well as the College of Social Work, an academic institution that
administered a census documenting all of the city’s pavement dwellers.

In reaction to the brutality of the state, a number of not-for-profit developmental organizations started
working with shack dwellers: BUILD, YUVA, SPARC and others. Also, a federation of organizations
was formed, called the Committee for the Right to Housing, along with a mass movement called
Navara Haq Surakhsa Sammittee. All these organizations were not affiliated to any political party and
drew their resources from funds and donations. They were affiliated to academic institutions or
churches and had social workers, architects or journalists as their leaders. Some of the NGOs were
also affiliated to civil rights organizations at the national and international level. The state’s strategies
were challenged on two fronts: by civil rights groups (supported by media outlets) that challenged
evictions by filing PILs 55 and by organizing slum residents into housing organizations to push for

55
Olga Tellis vs. the State of Maharashtra is one of the many cases filed.

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basic amenities. The courts took the view that displacement was legitimate only when the public
interest was affected and when it was accompanied by an acceptable rehabilitation package. Such
communities formed stronger alliances with emerging political parties, such as the Shiv Sena, which
in return for votes promised to protect them from forced relocation. Their strongest resource was their
occupancy of the lands as well as their swelling voting population.

Squatter settlements are bound by common landownership and land status; however, they are not
necessarily homogeneous communities, often building sub-communities based on jati, region of
migration and language. These differences often provided for preferred treatment of some
communities while marginalizing others. As a result, even though they engaged in collective
bargaining on the common interest issue of securing basic amenities, externally they collaborated with
competing political parties (Das 1995; Vora and Palshikar 2003).

Civil society: Environmental groups

Pressure groups made up of the political elite have always been active in Mumbai, but with limited
influence. Environmental organizations are a small but growing group that is concerned with land use
and utilization of space in the city, specifically preserving green areas at the cost of the urban poor
settlements (Guha 2008; Pendse 2003).

Two environmental groups went to court against the proposed changes to the reservations, initiated by
the planning committee and the chief minister in 1989. The first was the Save Bombay Committee
(SBC), led by ex-councillor Kisan Mehta (Congress), who was also a freedom fighter and a Gandhian.
He set up the SBC in 1973 to work on urban and regional planning and development; the main goal
was to ensure equal opportunities to all citizens by reducing overcrowding and combating inequalities
as well as to preserve open spaces, promote reforestation and environmental protection. The other
organization was the Bombay Environment Action Group (BEAG) led by one of its founding
members, Shyam Chainani (63). He studied engineering at IIT, MIT and Cambridge, is the son of an
ex-Chief Justice of the Mumbai High Court and worked with the Tatas. BEAG aims to protect the
environment and ecology by conserving and protecting natural resources, wildlife and forests, man-
made heritage, air, water and combating noise pollution. It creates awareness about environmental
issues by publishing research reports and organizing seminars. Their ‘extreme green’ approach to
defining environment is perceived by developmental organizations as anti-poor. BEAG’s uniqueness
lies in its persistence in using PILs as their prime strategy of influencing public policy (they have filed
several hundred cases). BEAG is made up of just five trustees, two activists and a small office staff
(The Indian Express 2005).

The most valuable resource of both environmental groups was their embeddedness within the political
elite; MLAs or industry leaders. This made it easier for them to access information, which was very
closely guarded in those days, and could exercise influence in an indirect way. Both SBC and BEAG
had the financial resources and the know-how to deal with the courts, which they often pursued. Their
main constraint was shortage of information, difficult to obtain even for elected members of the
assembly, such as Chandrashekhar Prabhu. In the 1980s, both organizations were just small pressure
groups of activists, a far cry from the NGOs they are today with strong infrastructure and human
resource. Recalling BEAG’s early days, Debi Goenka shares, ’You see we were working in an era
where we did not have the Right to Information Act, no money, no technology. It was difficult to get
across a paper to the other person, we were in an era where xeroxing [photocopying] was not so well
known and we had to depend on the ammonia machines…there was a serious limitation to
communicate, no internet…no e-mails, no mobile phones’. 56

Criticizing the role of both these groups, the D’Souza Committee writes that they shared similar ideas
on planning and the belief in an optimal size for Mumbai, and consequently were opposed to the trend
of urban growth. Their pressures on the Development Plan, according to the D’Souza Committee, led

56
Interview conducted by author, 17 May 2006.

109
to reserving some areas as Non Development Zones and other environmentally friendly policies.
Quoting Williams (1973) the D’Souza Committee Report reads (1987, 3), ’It is clear that all these
instruments aimed at keeping people out tend to keep out those with lower incomes. In short, local
population control policies are regressive…city after city are experiencing three cornered fights
amongst the advocates of business and development, the poor and working class and their liberal
advocates and the environmentalists in alliance with no-growth people who are usually middle class
young or upper middle class’.

Civil society in the mid- and late 1980s was made up of two sets of organizations upholding
contradictory views on the desired growth for the city. While the environmental groups saw the
growing slum population as a problem that needed to be addressed and reduced, developmental
organizations viewed shack dwellers as citizens whose human and housing rights had been denied.

6.5 CONCLUSIONS

Formulating a development plan for a city is long drawn-out, complex and conflict-prone process.
Crucial aspects of the plan deal with redistributive policies of land development and directly impact
commercial use, housing needs and other interests of multiple actors, thus drawing in all economic and
social classes to the policymaking arena. Various departments of local and state government are
engaged in the decision-making process, including the elected representatives, councillors at the local
level and MLAs at the state level. Also high-ranking officials—such as the Chief Minister of
Maharashtra, the Minister of Urban Development and the Municipal Commissioner of MCGM—play
key roles.

The process of planning and sanctioning requires a consensus-building process that creates spaces for
interaction of many different actors: landowners, shack dwellers, professionals from the construction
industry and middle class civil society groups. Thus the design of the planning process itself allows
and invites participation of many formal and informal actors. A study of the laws governing the
planning process (the MRTP Act), the critical events of the plan preparation process and the case
studies of communities directly engaged in influencing the plan reveals a large number of actors active
within the three broad sectors. Within the state sector, key actors are the political parties, government
officials and elected representatives at the local and state levels. Private sector actors include private
landowners, occupants and their leaders as well as environmental groups. The informal actors—i.e.
those not recognized in the legal framework—include sets of actors representing the mafia, political
parties, organizations of squatter settlements and professional associations. Agricultural tenants and
their sub-tenants is another informal group.

The stalemate of the early 1980s regarding the Land Ceiling Act and the slow process of acquisition
under the LAA had both the landowners and the builders frustrated; as a result there was a blockage in
land supply entering the market, either due to litigation or just by having plots reserved but not
acquired. Local government did not have the resources to neither acquire the land nor the powers to
dramatically change the Development Plan of the City of Bombay. These conditions spurred on
PEATA, a professional body of professional in the building industry and landowners, during the
formulation of the Second Development Plan of the City of Bombay to push for the TDR instrument,
as a means to de-regulate the rigid land acquisition regulations.

The informal use of TDR in the earlier Development Plan and its appearance as a policy option in the
report of the Second Development Plan is evidence of the success of the powerful association of
professionals, which is well embedded in the municipal corporation and able to influence its decision
making. PEATA and its members take full credit for the introduction of the innovative TDR
instrument in Mumbai. PEATA, with municipal engineers and planners as well as private practitioners
and builders as members, forms a space for innovation and experimentation within the rigid
hierarchies of the municipal corporation. It emerges as one of the most powerful actor in influencing
the urban land regulation regime. Their main resource was their high-level of embeddedness in the
municipal system, along with landownership, which made it possible for them to actually make a pact

110
to implement the TDR instrument to deliver amenities. Also, PEATA’s strong relationship with
government officials and their working knowledge of land markets and market instruments were key
resources for the organization.

The process of de-reservation of land plots reserved for public amenities and the subsequent
introduction of AR was pushed by two important sets of actors: the land squatters represented by the
political parties as one interest group and the landowners and their representatives
(builders/professionals) as another interest group. Both sought to de-reserve a large section of the
plots, rezoning public amenities into either slum housing or commercial use. The only section of
society that did not benefit from these interests and had interests contrary to the squatters was the
middle class, represented by environmental groups. These groups sought to block the process of de-
reservation of public amenity lands. The resources that the middle class groups had were their strong
personal links with several MLAs, access to courts and the print media.

The resources of the land squatters included their voting powers and their political affinity to a newly
emerging political party (Shiv Sena), which promised land security in exchange for votes. The overt
interest of all state actors appears to be the same: to generate resources for overcoming difficulties in
raising funds for the development plan. But there are also particular interests for some sub-categories
of actors. For example, the IAS officers were very interested in getting a plot of land de-reserved from
its earlier public amenity reservation into housing for their own use.

The chief minister of any state government is expected to raise funds for his own political party and
Bombay’s land was a potential source of such funding. Similarly, the councillors and the planning
committee at the municipal level also had interests in raising funds for their own party. Among all the
state actors, the chief minister stands out as the most powerful actor, not only for the position he holds
but also as an individual, as his resources include ownership over land, industry and a Marathi
language newspaper as well as his strong patronage network amongst media, officers and private
entrepreneurs. The resources of the IAS officers and planners lie in their knowledge of the law and
managing of information about the limitations and possibilities within the given law as well as the way
in which new instruments can be introduced into the old act. The planners had another important
resource for new ideas, the common space within PEATA, which provided a platform for discussing
and generating new ideas.

Local government is constrained by its limited powers to only provide recommendations, and is thus
completely dependent on state government. The planners too depend on the will of the politicians to
choose between the various options for raising funds. Further, given the existing planning context, the
planners did not have sufficient information on land prices and land markets; as a result the TDR
instrument was formulated in a way that was not land price sensitive. Also, the planners were not able
to completely envisage how the TDR market would function, or how the role of cartels and possible
clustering of TDR usage would impact public amenities and city space.

The private sector actors that engaged in policymaking and influencing processes included large
landowners, builders who had become landowners by buying land from small- and medium-size
landowners, the land occupiers and the land mafia. The landowners and builders had a common
interest in developing land that was ‘reserved for public amenities’. The squatters or the land occupiers
were interested in housing security, i.e. being recognized as legal occupiers of the land. The mafia and
the social leaders were interested in protecting the occupiers’ interests in exchange for votes and
money.

A majority of the large landowners did not depend completely on the land in question for their
livelihood, as they had other sources of income, such as ownership of industry and other businesses
(e.g., Wadias owned textile mills, while Godrej owned industries). As a result they were in no hurry to
realize the economic value of their land. The builders on the other hand were keen to realize economic
value of their land and therefore actively participated in platforms such as PEATA. The occupiers’
resources were their long-term occupation of the plot as well as their large voting population, which

111
made them necessary allies for any political party aspiring to win local elections. The mafia’s resource
was in the social approval they received as protectors from the occupiers and the muscle power which
they used to arm-twist landowners or officers into providing basic amenities to the slum dwellers.

The constraints faced by the occupiers in realizing tenure security and basic amenities emanate from
their status as slum dwellers on private land that is zoned for public amenities. Mafia lacked the larger
societal approval and respectability for their role of ‘protective brother’ of the slum dwellers. The role
of protector, including wheeling and dealing with municipal ward officials, and the use of violence as
a negotiating tool are activities in violation of the law. The majority of mafia dons overcame this
constraint by joining hands with a political party.

As in most geographic communities, there was more than one organization representing the occupiers,
mostly based on pre-existing jati or language based divisions. The organizations also affiliated
themselves with different parties and often competed with each other to establish political supremacy
during municipal elections. The initial constraints faced by the environmental organizations included
poor and scarce human resources and rudimentary technology. Their efforts in influencing land
policies were by and large limited to using the courts as an arena.

Embeddedness of actors and overlapping sectors

The policy environment was made more complex by both the embeddedness of the actors and the
overlap between sectors. The private sector associations (builders, entrepreneurs and professionals)
were found to be embedded in informal networks of relationships, attempting to influence the planning
process in the direction of liberalisation. Earlier practices and experiments that existed informally
within these networks crept into the Development Plan as recommendations for new rules and
policies.

The political establishment overlaps with the local mafia. The local mafia dons are also leaders of
community organizations of the occupiers, which are closely connected to political parties.
Community leaders take up the struggles of occupiers for security and housing and are elected as
councillors within local government.

Also actors from different sectors have common interests; for example, the agricultural land tenant and
slum squatter have a common interest to ensure that land is de-reserved from public amenity.
Similarly, landowners and builders have a common interest to ensure that land is made available for
development. Planners and professional associations are interested in seeing that land resources,
frozen due to litigation and rigid regulation, are de-regulated and more land comes into the market
(both for private and public use). Acting according to their interests, the actors appear to function in
two polarized, broad and loosely connected networks. The so-called ‘growth coalition’ supports
further de-regulation of development control rules of the city and liberalization of land policies, which
would permit higher population density, including de-reservations. The actors interested in
maintaining regulation and zoning of lands by leaving large tracks of land undeveloped, i.e. reserving
more land as ‘no development zones’ (through the Coastal Regulations Zones) and retaining all public
spaces, have been called the ‘no-growth coalition’. The no-growth coalition is led by environmental
and middle class civil society organizations supported by large landowners. The growth coalition is
led by politicians, small- and medium-size landowners and slum residents. The following chapter will
analyze the two opposing strategies and arenas of influence of the two coalitions.

The planning process also brings forth a change in the power relationship between the local and the
state government: the state government seeks to curtail the power of the local elected body by
strengthening the role of the Municipal Commissioner of MCGM, who is appointed by the Chief
Minister of Maharashtra.

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CHAPTER 7: COALITIONS, STRATEGIES AND ARENAS

INTRODUCTION

In the previous chapter, the key actors and their interests, resources and constraints have been
introduced vis-à-vis the formulation of policies and rules of land management in the revised
Development Plan of the city. At the city level, two urban formations that link actors across sectors
were identified: one pushing for de-regulation of land rules and another pushing for retaining zoning
regulations to acquire private land for delivery of public amenities. Chapter 6 also showed that some
actors collude to form multi-actor formations to influence policy. Such formations have also been
called advocacy coalitions (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1999). This chapter will take a closer look at
the strategies advocacy coalitions develop and the venues through which they choose to influence the
direction of urban land policy and regulations.

In this chapter, the Development Plan story will be further elaborated by presenting the strategies and
arenas used by the two coalitions. The role played by the IAS officers of the government in bridging
the two coalitions is discussed in the section on policy brokers, which describes the process by which
the experiments of the growth coalition eventually became official policy. The outcome of the
negotiations between the two coalitions resulted in the new development control rules for the city,
presented in chapter 8.

7.1 THE PRO-GROWTH COALITION

Policy beliefs and resources

The pro-growth coalition was led by politicians whose primary constituency is made up of squatter
settlement and the homeless. This coalition included the state level politicians, all the councillors in
the MCGM as well as the Janata Dal (Bombay) movements, such as Nagrik Niwara Prakalp and other
housing rights campaigns. There are two main factions within this coalition: one seeking to implement
the ULCRA and obtain private lands for public housing, and another seeking to free up land from
community amenities for private companies to undertake general housing construction. The first group
had a ‘socialist’ goal in de-reserving zoned private lands, while the second group’s goal was to
completely liberalize the land market through market instruments, such as compensation in lieu of
land acquired by government (TDR and AR). The liberal fractions’ belief was that if the natural course
of growth was not curtailed (which according to them the Development Plan was doing) then the
private sector would bring privately held land and public amenities into the public realm, thus
improving living conditions for all in the city. The formation that pushed for de-regulation of land
rules was formed on the basis of two embedded associations: one of professionals (PEATA) and
another based on class (voters from squatter settlements and the political parties representing them).
Thus, the pro de-regulation formation is of the associational type, where pacts are made amongst
actors to implement joint projects, enabled by policy changes.

It is not very clear ‘who chose who’—i.e. whether the professional association chose to partner up
with the state (to influence policy change) or whether the local government chose the PEATA. It is
clear, however, that it was only due to the attractive outcome of experiments of implementing TDR
and the possibility for making a pact between the private landowners and developers and the public
sector to deliver public amenities, if private lands were sanctioned for development through the TDR
or other such market instrument. In a similar manner, AR landowners also appear to have made a pact
that allowed them to develop some of the plots, provided they resettled the squatters somewhere on
that same piece of land. The promissory letters issued by the state government to the landowners
whose lands were de-reserved—even prior to the passing of the Development Plan—are clear
evidence for the existence of these pacts.

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The strategies used by the pro-deregulation association of professionals were to snowball the
promissory note process to include all possible landowners and interest groups. Their strategies
included building bridges among themselves and durably overcoming fragmentation by building a
single body to negotiate with the state. In the process they settled disagreements and jointly decided
on policy areas beneficial for all members. The strategy used by the pro-deregulation association was
to similarly snowball the pact-making process to include all possible political parties representing
common interests. The improvements committee included all political parties, and the share from
income earned for each de-reservation was said to be equally divided among all political parties.
Together these associations formed the pro-growth coalition, which started with the de-reservation
pressure built by private landowners at the municipal level and became synonymous with Sharad
Pawar (the Chief Minister at the time). He not only de-reserved 285 very large plots in Bombay—an
action that kicked up a storm in the media as well as in the legislative assembly—but soon approved
large-scale de-reservations also in the Vasai-Virar Region. 57

Strategies and arenas of the pro-growth coalition

The pro-growth coalition started timidly, with private actors influencing the BMC in drafting the
Development Plan. With the formation of the planning committee, the coalition expanded to include
councillors, builders and landowners. Initially, negotiations took place by individual owners who
lobbied for rezoning of their land. Commenting on the reservations made by the planning committee,
Joseph says, ’In many of the reservations in the suburbs, the planning authority had stated that if the
owner would give some part of the land free of cost, and without encumbrances, then it would delete
half or some portion of the land from the reservation (David 1996, 289). In his opinion this was a kind
of negotiation. 58

As the draft plan reached the state government, the advisory committee for the Development Plan
further strengthened the argument for growth (D'Souza 1987). Growth as a policy direction received a
final boost when the High Court overruled the PILs of the environmental groups in 1989. According to
a then Congress Party MLA, Chandrashkehar Prabhu, who was the whistle blower on the de-
reservation of 285 plots in Mumbai, the process was initiated in 1985 by de-reserving plots for
important central government dignitaries, followed by de-reservations for IAS officers as well as for
state and local level politicians. When all these constituencies were satisfied and co-opted, Sharad
Pawar moved on to give favours to landowners/developers of Bombay, Vasai-Virar and Nala Sopara
(see figure 7.1).

57
Vasai and Virar are rural areas located to the north of Bombay along the western cost.
58
The report of the D’Souza Committee called this kind of conditional sharing of land a ‘bargain’ as the percentage of land
shared kept changing from case to case.

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Figure 7.1: Members and network of the pro-growth coalition

Private Sector Public Sector

State Government

Land owners of Bombay

Members of the Legislative Local Government
Assembly
Small and Medium The Municipal Corporation,
Land owners/builders Councilors of all parties
The ruling ministers
and planning committee

PEATA

Slum residents and their organizations

Vasai
Virar
Land Mafia

Civil Society of the

land occupiers

Sharing the benefits

The coalition appears to have coalesced as the members reached out to the different decision-making
bodies and attracted supporters, who saw personal benefit in promoting the growth policy. Multiple
strategies were used by the pro-growth coalition, such as giving benefits to strong actors and using
violence against weak actors. Changing laws to deal with court cases (e.g. introduction of new terms
such as ‘minor changes in the development control rules and ‘major changes’ in the related rules
which require changes in the development control regulation to receive public suggestions) and
marketing a liberal vision of the city, to build support for growth, were two other strategies used by
the pro-growth coalition. Private sector actors, landowners and builders were the largest beneficiaries
of the de-reservations (as shown in chapter 6). In the sections below the strategies used by pro-growth
coalition are elaborated.

Potentially strong actors that could have blocked the process of liberalizing land zoning included IAS
officers and the opposition political parties. A section of these actors benefited from the de-reservation
and, instead of blocking this irregularity, they joined the growth coalition. Other major beneficiaries of
the de-reservation of Vasai-Virar and Nalasopara regions were a small group of builders from Bombay
that bought up large tracks of land just as its value changed with up-zoning from green to urbanizable.
Amongst the builders who reaped huge benefits from the de-zoning of the Vasai-Virar Region,
mentioned on the floor of the assembly by Manohar Joshi of Shiv Sena, were Hirandani, Diwan,
Lodha, Pereira builders, Raheja, Roshan Agarwal and Shriprastha. Other large buyers reportedly
included Bhai Thakur, a lieutenant of a Dubai-based don, Dawood Ibrahim, the man who ran a parallel
government in this area (this brought India’s most wanted mafia boss together with the coalition of
Sharad Pawar (Banerjie and Tellis 1989).

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Media

Also members of political parties benefited from de-reservations, amongst them a large number of
state ministers in Maharashtra as well as state-level senior leaders of the Congress Party. In 1990, the
Sharad Pawar-led state government rezoned 8,500 hectares of land from green to urbanizable in Vasai-
Virar and Nalasopara (well-known as ports used by smugglers to bring gold to India). A number of
political leaders and activists blamed Sharad Pawar for leaking his plans beforehand to a small group
of builders and party members; in turn several prominent developers from Bombay bought large tracts
of land in these areas at throwaway prices from different owners.59

The process of de-reservation of this region went in two phases: 8,500 hectares were released in
August 1988 and 2,000 hectares in May 1990. The second batch of 2,000 hectares was mostly saltpans
and as all saltpans are under the direct jurisdiction of the Salt Commissioner (under the Ministry of
Commerce and Industry of the Government of India), thus requiring clearance from the Government
of India for the development of this land. Newspaper articles indicated that a ‘No Objection
Certificate’ was sought by Sharad Pawar from the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ajit Singh. In
the second phase of de-reservations of the Vasai–Virar Region, a number of ministers and legislators
bought tracks of land through ‘benami’ deals. Some of the prominent names mentioned in the press
include cabinet ministers of the state government Vilas Sawant, Ramro Adik and the Minister for
Urban Development, Sushil Kumar Shinde. Pawar’s relationship with Vasai-based builders came to
the fore during his helicopter ride to inaugurate a 350 building complex built by Shriprastha builders.
Political workers of all parties including Congress (I), Shiv Sena and the BJP were reported to
function as middlemen, executing land deals and helping builders to obtain Non-Agricultural (NA)
permission from the collector’s office. Activists accuse the officers of the local gram panchayats of
misdeeds and accuse them of acting as agents of the builders, identifying plots for acquisition and
assisting them in making changes in the land records. The state government earned an estimated one
billion rupees in transaction fees during this period.

The growth coalition successfully galvanized support among different political parties for de-
reservations. Both the Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar received de-reserved plots, and this move muted
Shiv Sena’s opposition to Sharad Pawar’s Vasai-Virar de-reservation. Shiv Sena Chief, Bal
Thackeray, reportedly gave a clean sheet to Sharad Pawar in 1991 at a public meeting in Thane where
he said that the corruption charges against Sharad Pawar over the Vasai-Virar de-reservation were not
backed by any proofs. The media commentaries saw this apparent somersault by Shiv Sena on the
Vasai-Virar issue to be the result of a secret pact between Pawar and Thackeray to postpone the
MCGM elections (Mahesh 1990b).

The Shiv Sena (the ruling party of the Bombay Municipal Corporation) was already a part of the de-
reservation process with 1,380 plots, providing both financial gain as well as a growing constituency
of squatters. Newspapers as well as the D’Souza Committee alleged that the planning committee,
which had representatives of all represented political parties at the municipal corporation level, had
benefited by recommending de-reservations. The Janata Dal was the other political opposition, which
was also co-opted by de-reserving the 65 acres of land for their mass housing project called Nagrik
Niwara, situated in the north-western suburbs of Bombay.

In 1981, the socialist-oriented Janata Dal formed a large broad-based organization called Nagrik
Nivara (Citizens Shelter). Their aim was to demand land from the government to construct housing for
low-income slum residents. Although the protests and organizing started in 1981, it was only during
Sharad Pawar’s reign that 65 acres of land was allotted and de-reserved in 1990. This land belonged to
the F. E. Dinshaw Trust and was acquired by the state government under the ULCRA. However,

59
Information obtained in interviews with different activists and political leaders (Chandrashekhar Prabhu, Manual Tuskana
etc.). According to the Janata Dal leader, the late Nashikrao Tirpude, ’Obviously, about Rs.1,500 crore to Rs.2,000 crore has
changed hands before the decision to release the land was taken’ The Indian Express, "Pawar in another Land Scam:
Tirpude," Express News ServicesJune 13, 1990..

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acquiring the land was only the first step; it was originally reserved under ‘green area’ and the
designation had to be changed to public housing before it could be used by Nagrik Nivara.

Many actors benefited from de-reservation or changes in the zoning of plots. Such beneficiaries
became de-facto members of the coalition, which created a very broad-based pro-growth coalition.
The arena used for this strategy was the passing of government orders to de-reserve plots of land in
Bombay and the Vasai-Virar Region. This de-reservation was done in the form of a promissory letter
to the landowners, promising them one third of their reserved (public amenity) land for development.
This increased the landowners’ share of the land, and in return led them to informally agree to hand
over the rest of the land to the government for public amenities. This pact was essentially the driving
force behind the growth coalition.

While the pact started off by including only a small section of the landowners represented via PEATA,
it was soon expanded to include more and more landowners. Primarily driven by private interests, it
also attracted civic and political actors who saw the pact as a viable means to achieve public benefits
(e.g., the housing rights movements floated by Janta Dal of Nagrik Nivara).

The question that emerges is why did those actors that did not agree with the government’s policy of
land de-regulation choose to benefit from it? It appears that the socialist groups or groups that sought
housing for shack dwellers and the lower middle class were not aware of the larger plan of the Pawar
coalition. They saw it as an opportunity to prove to the state that implementing the ULCRA can create
public housing and improve living conditions for citizens. Or perhaps they were well aware of Pawar’s
power and knew that it was either something or nothing and the socialists group went for something
small in the face of completely losing out.

So while the Janata Dal continued protesting against the de-reservation in Vasai-Virar, it demanded
that 65 acres of land in Mumbai be de-reserved for Nagrik Nivara’s project. Was the protest just a
staged performance while the real deals were made behind the scenes? The answer to this question is
that perhaps this has to do with the nature of this political party and its culture. Janta Dal is made up of
social activists who see themselves first and foremost as defenders of democracy and equality—
instead of loyal party members who readily toe the party line—and the Vasai-Virar Janta Dal had a
mind of its own and did not follow actions of Janta Dal Bombay. However, their double-speak
undermined their protests against the state government, making them part of Sharad Pawar’s growth
coalition.

In political science literature there is a strong critical stream of criticism of such associations, seeing
them as private governments using illegitimate power. Generally, the literature assumes that an
association refers to one a single group having such power (in most cases it would be either the upper
class or an exclusive club of elite professionals). However, evidence from the Mumbai case of de-
regulation of land regimes shows that actually there are two associations that together negotiate for a
larger share of the de-reserved land: the association of professionals and the class-based network.

Using violence as a tool

The pro-growth coalition in Vasai spawned a whole generation of land agents and builders, and the
birth of a new political era in the Vasai-Virar Region. One of the prime beneficiaries of the Vasai-
Virar de-reservation was the Thakur family. In 1990, the two Thakur brothers, Jayendra and
Hitendra, 60 floated a political party called Vasai Vikas Mandal (VVM) or ‘Organization for the

60
Jayendra Thakur also known as Bhai a.k.a. ‘brother’, was a young gold smuggler who started his political career in the
Congress Party but stepped out and was elected MLA in 2004. With the support of the two Congress parties and VVM, they
have been ruling Vasai-Virar for the past 18 years. At the local level, it is difficult to distinguish between the Congress-I and
the VVM which openly supported the Congress-I in the 2001 national general elections to dislodge BJP MLA Ram Naik.
Today, VVM is the ultimate authority in the region, controlling the local economy and businesses, particularly the tankers
that supply water to buildings and construction companies (D. Bunsha, "Dons in a New Role," Frontline, 2004, 54). Bhai

117
Development of Vasai’. The Dawood-Thakur tie is old, dating to the early 1970s when gold
smuggling was at its peak. 61 After the government liberalized gold import rules, smuggling waned and
the organized crime groups searched for new sectors. Dealing in land (i.e. buying land cheap from the
tribal owners and selling it at high rates to developers) turned out to be a promising new venture. But
land dealings require a close relationship with politicians who play perhaps the most important role of
deciding land policies and settling land disputes. Overnight, huge transfers of money from the Dubai-
based Dawood went into land transactions, as huge chunks of land were bought by the Thakur gang
and other mafia and political agents under false identities or non-names (the so-called benami).

Human rights activists have initiated several cases protesting incomplete payment for the land
procured from the tribal owners, and as a result are being terrorized to deter them from continuing
their mission. Violence and terror distinguish the Thakur gang, which is also been held responsible for
the murder of Ms. Navleen Kumar, an activist working for tribal land rights. Kumar testified in court
against Bhai Thakur and was killed the next day. Based on her testimony, Bhai Thakur was charged
under TADA in 2002.

This movement of money—from gold smuggling to land development and into politics—has
concentrated power in a few individuals in the Vasai-Virar Region. To maintain this power, they have
used violence along with providing patron gifts of water supply and jobs. The process of transferring
funds from gold smuggling into land transactions and finally transferring the profits from land deals
into political power is the transformation of a band of smugglers into land mafia and ultimately into
elected political leaders.

Exploring the role of the MMRDA (then called BMRDA), one can see that politicians emerged
victorious over the bureaucracy in the de-zoning of the Vasai-Virar Region. The then Commissioner
of MMRDA, responsible for the planning of the Mumbai urban region, refused to align with Sharad
Pawar and sought a transfer elsewhere. The planning role for this region went to CIDCO, probably
because the Chief Minister found that BMRDA was more difficult to manage in comparison. Despite
various legal challenges and public protests by environmental groups in Vasai-Virar, there was no
turning back from the commercialization of these prime lands, which not only gave rise to unplanned
growth but also to a violent mafia-controlled political economy.

Building a consensus on the goal of growth: Vision Singapore

In the 1980s and 1990s, Singapore was hailed as an ideal model for Bombay. The government slogan
was to make Bombay into Singapore, the idea was originally floated by Sharad Pawar and developed
and implemented by the Shiv Sena. Segbers et al. have criticized the paucity of self-discipline of the
political class in giving little attention to the ways in which resources, spaces, and technologies would
be distributed amongst the classes in realizing the vision (Segbers 2007). Criticizing the vision, they
point to the contradictions that prevailed in the urban beautification rhetoric of ‘Clean Bombay, Green

Thakur is now in jail for the murder of Suresh Dube (along with other cases: extortion, criminal intimidation, attempt to
murder, murder and land embezzlement). Vasai-based builder Dube was killed at the Nalasopara Railway Station during the
morning rush hour. Despite his jailing Thakur continues his operations with support of Dawood Ibrahim (who is now said to
be in Pakistan).
61
From the late 1700s to 1830s, Vasai, Dahanu and Bombay have been important ports for the opium trade to China, and
contributed to the growth of organized crime in Bombay and its suburbs. At different times, the Organized Crime Groups
(OCGs) have focused on smuggling different goods: gold, drugs, diamonds, etc. After Independence these OCGs underwent
substantial changes. In the 1950s a few small timers were able to grow using their business acumen and ruthlessness; they
employed a combination of bureaucratic and patron models of management. In the 1960s, the ‘Dadas’ was an organized
structure which engaged in various activities and also held ‘courts’ during the day. Intergroup rivalries and consolidation
marked the 1980s, which led to a shift of the base of the OCG outside the country, with their assistants or network partners
taking care of day-to-day activities. M. Charles, "The Growth and Activities of Organized Crime in Bombay," International
Social Science Journal 53, no. 169 (2001), 359-367.. Bhai Thakur is one such partner of the mafia boss Dawood Ibrahim.

118
Bombay’. The vision was expanded by the Shiv Sena government as they took on to implement
various flyovers and further liberalized higher FSI for slums and old-building renewal projects.
However, the idea of a global city vision did more than just provide a dream. It cemented the
splintered elite groups within a common vision of the city, under which the liberalization of land
policy, large-scale involuntary relocations and mega-projects with substantial private sector
participation could be justified under the banner of implementing the collective vision of transforming
Bombay into a global city. 62

Legislature as an arena

The growth coalition exercised their strategies in various arenas. While some of the arenas were
selected in reaction to their opponents, the no-growth coalition (e.g., the courts, the assembly or the
print media), other arenas were selected based on the coalition’s inherent strength: amending the rules,
which govern participation and information-sharing with public-spirited civil society groups (e.g.
when minor changes are made to the Development Control Regulations, the changes in rules do not
require the state to undertake a process by which suggestions and comments are sought from the
public, thereby limiting public participation and influence on the development rules). When the
environmental groups reached the court for the second time they were shocked to find that the law
itself had been changed. The MRTP Act, which defined that all major and minor changes in zoning
needed to follow a process by which the public is given an opportunity to submit their objections and
recommendations, was changed by the state government to include only major changes, thereby
restricting the inclusion of the public in the planning process of ‘minor changes’ (Adarkar 2008).

Snowballing of the growth coalition

The growth coalition, which started off as a small but powerful cabal of engineers and PEATA 63
members in the early 1970s, had slowly and steadily grown to include a larger number of actors. The
process appears to have snowballed, whereby all actors involved in the policymaking process became
direct beneficiaries and were co-opted into the growth coalition. Councillors as representatives of civil
society groups of the land occupiers/slum dwellers joined the coalition by de-reserving land plots
during the hearing of objections and recommendations from the public. Simultaneously, the planning
committee also de-reserved a portion of the land plots for agricultural tenants.

The large landowners approached the state government, because of their existing network with the
state government and the fact that the ultimate authority of sanctioning of the Development Plan did
lie with the state government. In 1989, the Chief Minister via the 285 de-reservations brought in a
number of groups (e.g., charity groups, central government MPs as well as large landowners) into the
growth coalition. Also protesters, prominently the Janata Dal, were co-opted (see figure 7.2).

Different actors played the bridging role between the actor subsystems, thus also becoming part of the
coalition. At the local level it was the planning committee that served as bridge between the officials
and landowners; at the state level it was the Chief Minister and his council of ministers. The difficulty
was to gather the support of the no-growth coalition actors (this is where the policy brokers became
useful, as shown in the last section).

62
In the early 2000 a new global city model was promoted by a lobby group representing the interests of the new commercial
sector of the city proposing Shanghai as a model to be followed for Mumbai.
63
Information based on interviews with various former and current engineers of the MCGM.

119
Figure 7.2: Snowballing of pro-growth coalition

Small and Medium

Agricultural Tenants/
Land holders-1984

Section of large Engineers/

Land owners, political parties, Planners of
Central govt. heavy weights Engineers/ Architects BMC
Via de-reservation Small and Medium
Of 289 plots by CM Land Owners/ Builders from
In 1989 The early 1970
’s

Councilors
And
Civil society groups of
the land occupiers
85-86 (planning committee)

Bombay’s
Environment
org.
No-growth
coalition
Actors in 1991 Vasai- Virar
No growth movement

7.2 THE ‘NO-GROWTH’ COALITION

Policy beliefs and resources

The no-growth coalition was primarily led by environmentalist groups, with the Save Bombay
Committee, BEAG and the Bombay Civic Trust at the forefront. The coalition included some
members of the legislature, such as Chandrashekhar Prabhu, an architect by profession and then
Congress MLA from the Island City (Opera house), with close ties to the Nehru-Gandhi family. He
was involved in the agitation against the de-reservation of plots in Bombay and also took up the issue
of the de-reservations in the Vasai-Virar Region.

These groups wanted to ensure that the environment (green and open spaces within the city) was not
compromised and that public amenities remained in the Development Plan. They were the initiators of
the Coastal Regulation Zone policy and their key concerns were to retain existing green areas as non-
buildable areas, provide for decongestion of the city, keep the FSI low, protect the costal zones and
reserve large land areas as no-development zones for future use. Municipal planners who opted for
low population growth and decongestion of the city also belong to this no-growth coalition. These
planners and the environmentalists supported the TDR mechanism.

120
Key objections and criticism raised by these three environmental groups on the new development rules
included the sale of surplus mill lands, the pro-builder slant of the rules (which led to a spurt in
building activity in already congested areas), using vacant land in industrial zoned areas for
commercial or residential purposes (Sharma 1990). They also objected to section 31 of the rules,
which gave the MCGM Commissioner discretionary powers to increase FSI in certain cases, thus
easing the controls that govern NDZ areas.

The key beneficiaries of NDZ and non-buildable reservation or coastal reservations are large
landowners: Godrej, Jeejeebhoy Byramjee and Amir Amusements. These groups are also part of the
no-growth coalition, as they benefited by keeping their lands out of government acquisition via
ULCRA. The ‘no-urbanization’ movement, which developed in response to the de-reservation of plots
in the Vasai-Virar Region, also joined the no-growth coalition. Various organizations came under the
banner of the Harit Vasai Surakshan Samiti (Green Vasai Protection Organization) and undertook
mass-mobilization and filed public interest litigations against the pro-growth groups (state
government, politicians, builders and local mafia). On 1 October 1989, about 100,000 inhabitants of
Vasai (including middle class residents and tribal) marched against the re-zoning of the area from
green to urbanizable. This march was violently broken up by the police, with several activists and
citizens beaten up and arrested. Despite this incident, protests continued against CIDCO’s
Development Plan, which according to environmental groups would spell doom for Vasai if
implemented in full.

Contrary to what took place in Bombay proper, in the tribal dominated north-western suburbs, the
strategy of mobilization and litigation went hand in hand. The pro-environmental coalition included
tribal communities and middle class residents, and brought together village panchayats, Roman
Catholic Church organizations and human rights groups. Together they initiated a non-violent mass
movement against the pro-growth coalition.

A distinct difference exists between two regions in their mechanisms of protests, which appear to have
led to different outcomes. In Bombay, the protest space was limited to the High Court, and the Writ
Petition was the single mechanism used by activist groups, which were seen as associated with
Congress (I). In the Vasai-Virar Region, environmentalist groups submitted PILs, while the tribal
groups chose street mobilization and worked through the panchayats. The former were more
comfortable with courts, whereas the latter chose public spaces to protest. It appears that the choice of
space to influence urban policies is largely dependent on the inherent strengths of the group.

The formation that was pushing for preserving land regulation seems more like a civil society policy
network; they are loosely tied together and they primarily exchange information within this network.
Other common features include their joint concern for the environment and the membership structure,
dominated by elite professionals living in the Island City of Mumbai. Their strategies for influencing
the policy process were either to take up the issue in the assembly and through the media (especially
print media).

Strategies and arenas of the no-growth coalition

As discussed earlier in chapter 6, there were two factions within the no-growth coalition: the Island
City and the Vasai-Virar. The no-growth coalition found that they were confronting an ever-growing
growth coalition. Their major strategy was to confront the government and to bring to book the
irregularities in the planning process (used in both regions). They used different arenas to play out this
strategy, such as the High Court, the Legislative Assembly. Participating in panchayat elections and
the street as arenas to confront the growth coalition were strategies used only by the Vasai-Virar
process. The key actors of the no-growth coalition were,
• Civic Groups—such as BEAG and Save Bombay Committee and the Bombay Civic Trust
from the Island City of Mumbai,
• Congress MLA—prominently Chandrashekhar Prabhu from the Opera house constituency of
Mumbai,

121
 • Planners and the Municipal Commissioner of the local government,
• Socialist groups, church and human rights organizations as well as tribal rights organizations
of the Vasai-Virar Region.

Both the BEAG and the Save Bombay Committee were keenly involved in submitting their objections
and recommendations on the draft Development Plan prepared by the MCGB. In this way, they were
in dialogue with the policymakers in the initial stages of the policy process. The confrontation process
started with the publishing of the draft plan. Goenka recollects, ’When the Development Plan was
published it was some 400 pages, priced at 10,000 rupees. BEAG went to the court protesting against
its high prices and later the BMC made it affordable.’ 64

The de-reservation of 285 plots by the Chief Minister in 1989 and the simultaneous passing of the
interim Development Plan triggered a reaction from civil society groups, which decided to confront
the government once again. However this time the litigations were against the state government. Their
first objections against the state government challenged the excessive powers of the state government
to sanction changes in the designated use of the plots (ranging from 285-600). 65 Their contention was
that these changes amounted to ‘major change’ and as per law major changes should invite objections
and suggestions from the public. Following due process, this required that the information be
published in the gazette or local newspaper. In a direct attack on the network of private and public
actors, the second objection of civil society groups (BEAG) was that the de-reservation was actuated
by intention of the government to permit landholders and builders to profit at the expense of the
general public. 66

Courts as an arena

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Public Interest litigation was a well-established practice in India’s
courts, and produced some progressive rulings; however, these pertained primarily to human rights
violations not urban development. In Bombay this was the third instance of using a PIL for urban
development issues. Both in the auctioning of public land during the Back Bay reclamation (1973-76)
and in the case of demolitions of slums during the 1980 monsoon (when a newspaper report by
journalist Olga Telis was turned into PIL), the PIL strategy had positive results by protecting the
squatters from the strong interventions of the state government. In the Vasai-Virar, civil society actors
used the courts as one of their arenas to confront the violation of rules by the state government and
associated actors, also utilizing social protest actions and participation in local elections.

In Bombay, the BEAG and the Save Bombay Committee chose to approach the courts as their singular
strategy to oppose changes sought by the pro-growth coalition in the draft Development Plan. Two
public interest litigations were filed by BEAG in the Bombay High Court. The first petition demanded
that the changes in plot use be treated as major changes to the Development Plan, which could be
undertaken without calling for comments from general public. The objective of the petition was to get
the state to bring the de-reservations open to public scrutiny and debate. BEAG’s second petition
challenged, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the legality and constitutionality of the state
government’s de-reservation of a large number of plots in Greater Bombay. Pending consideration of
the draft Development Plan, the state government had directed the MCGB to permit variation in the
uses of plots 285 to 600. BEAG said that such large-scale de-reservation would nullify the very
objective of planned development, as the direction would deprive the public of their statutory right to
participate in the planning process. Taking a sample of ten such plots, BEAG tried to show that de-
reservation was driven by intention to permit landholders and builders to profit at the expense of the
general public. (The Bombay High Court asked them to withdraw this statement till proven.)

64
Information obtained during interview with Debi Goenka of BEAG, 17 May 2006.
65
Public Interest Litigation, 1989, Bombay Environmental Action Group vs. the State of Maharashtra and another.
66
Public Interest Litigation, 1991.

122
The Bombay High Court held that unless there has been a change of substantial nature affecting the
totality of the plan for the whole area or even a significant part thereof, no notice is required to be
given. On the first issue, concerning publicity about proposals for modification of a substantial nature,
the court pointed out that it is not necessary to publish every proposal for modification: ‘Wherever it
be shown that a direction of the government to change land user involves a departure of substantial
nature vis-à-vis the draft Development Plan and that the requirement of publicity had not been
followed, courts can and will interdict the direction. The figure of 285 or even 600 for that matter
furnishes no answer to the applicability or otherwise of the second proviso’ (The High Court of
Bombay 1989). 67

BEAG described as false the argument that de-reservations were being carried out because the MCGB
did not have adequate resources. Bombay, said BEAG, ‘was overcrowded and present public
amenities like playgrounds, hospitals and schools were inadequate to meet needs of existing residents
and any further release of plots would gravely affect the life and comfort of millions. The de-
reservations were arbitrary and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India’. BEAG also
sought information on the list of plots de-reserved with the names and addresses of the owners. The
court rejected the petition as it found the grounds untenable, as the state government had complete
powers to carry out changes in the draft Development Plan. However, the state was instructed by the
Bombay High Court to disclose the list of de-reserved plots with names and addresses of the owners.
According to the Times of India, ‘the judge rejected almost every contention raised by the petitioner’
(The Times of India 1989).

A number of factors contributed to the failure of the environmental groups to achieve their goals by
using the court as an arena. One was the power of the pro-growth coalition, which represented itself as
a collective in the courts with eminent lawyers, not just representing the state but also those private
entrepreneurs who benefited from de-reservations. 68 Kisan Mehta of the Save Bombay Committee
recollects, ’We were not fighting against the state government alone; we were fighting against all the
big builders and the big lawyers 69 who stood with the state government in the High Court. How could
we win?’ 70

There were clear limitations in using the court as an arena and PILs as a strategy. Kisan Mehta
identifies the hurdles faced in pursuing the case at the High Court’s decision, ‘The information on the
plots was so skimpy (it gave only the City Survey Number and the promoter’s name) that it was
almost impossible for activists groups to identify these plots of land. This incomplete information
blocked the activists groups from taking the matter up in the Supreme Court.’

The High Court said that the state government had powers to amend the proposed Development Plan
of the city and termed the modifications as ‘minor’ and thus not requiring the soliciting of objections
and suggestions from the public. Commenting on the selection of ten plots for the petitions, Debi
Goenka of BEAG explains,
Another thing that happened was that the lawyers actually suggested you will face a major
problem if you take all the plots; take ten and highlight these in the petition. Shyam (Chenani)
spoke to J. B. D’Souza and a list of ten was made. Unfortunately it was a bad choice. ...The
285 was a series of accidents. …The BMC must have received thousands of objections. The
BMC gets many responses for each plot and somewhere it decides that this is the tipping point

67
In the matter of Bombay Environmental Action Group and another vs. State of Maharashtra and others W. P. Nos 1452
and 1963 of 1989, decided on 13 September 1989.
68
Also lawyers seem to be part of the pro-growth coalition; however, this is an area which needs further study (Interview
conducted by researcher).
69
The lawyers for the state government included Mr. Ashok Desai, Mr. R. A. Dada, Mr. Aspi Chinoy and Mr. R. A. Gaonkar.
Dr. Ishaq Jamkhanwala, Minister for Urban Development and D. M. Trivedi, the Secretary of the Urban Development
Department secretary appeared as witnesses for BMC and its commissioner.
70
Kisan Mehta, interviewed by author in November 2006

123
 and probably the highest bidder who also has access to the ultimate decision maker wins. The
task is huge and complicated, negotiations go on for months. No attempt is made to look at the
locality or to analyze and examine its carrying capacity/ecological foothold. No attempt to see
what the neighbourhood is like and whether changing the use would invite more residents and
users and whether the area has the required infrastructure for these changes.71

D. T. Joseph wrote extensively about the protests and court cases against the decision-making process
of the Development Plan. Explaining the role of the Srinivasan Committee—a panel headed by the
then Additional Chief Secretary and including five senior secretaries to the Government of
Maharashtra—Joseph writes that the committee had 194 meetings in three years, carried out site
inspections and gave ward by ward recommendations by 31 December 1992. Joseph further writes,
‘During the period the Srinivasan Committee was in session, a few notices of motion were taken out
on existing appeals arising out of the writ petitions and were referred by the High Court to this
committee, and the High Court was pleased to agree in toto with the reports of the Committee in such
cases’ (David 1996).

Assembly as an arena

Mumbai’s Development Plan and de-reservation of plots were taken up in the Maharashtra Legislative
Assembly twice by MLAs from the no-growth coalition: on 11 April 1989 and on 21 July 1989.
During the first discussion the focus was on the process and corruption in the planning committee of
MCGM, the second discussion was in response to a point of order raised by an MLA who wanted to
know the number of plots de-reserved by the state government. However the Housing Minister refused
to answer, with the justification that the case was pending in court. A number of MLAs participated in
the discussion, which subsequently raised the issue as to whether the assembly or the court had more
powers. Members of the assembly demanded a complete debate on the de-reservation issue; however,
they were informed by the officers that it was not permitted as it could be considered sub judice, and
relevant information was withheld from them. This discussion caused an upheaval in the assembly,
interrupting its sessions six times. The session ended with slogan shouting on 21 July 1989, without a
discussion as ministers of the state refused to give into demands made by MLAs, citing the excuse of
sub judice. The state government reacted to these protests in the assembly by setting up of the J. B.
D’Souza Committee to examine the de-reservation of the 285 plots.

On 4 April 1990, almost a year after the issue was first raised, the then Minister for Urban
Development, Sushil Kumar Shinde, submitted to the assembly a voluminous document giving details
of the de-reservations recommended by the state government, the planning committee of the BMC and
the report of the J. B. D’Souza Committee. Describing the response of the opposition members in the
assembly, the Times of India reports (The Times of India 1990), ’The opposition members, who had
been demanding details about the 285 plots, were not satisfied with the mere tabling of the document.
They staged a walkout when the government did not respond favourably to their persistent demand for
a discussion on the report. They demanded the names of the owners of the plots and the political
heavyweights who recommended the de-reservation to the government’.

Repercussions of what took place in the assembly were also felt in the MCGB general body. On 23
March 1990, a point of order was raised by BJP councillor Sardar Tara Singh, who contended that the
list of plots de-reserved by the planning committee should be tabled first in the MCGB and then in the
assembly because, ’the plots are in Bombay and it is the prerogative of the BMC to see the document
before anybody else’. He was supported by Ramesh Joshi of Janata Dal (The Times of India 1990).
Taking in consideration that the court had dismissed the cases filed by the environmental groups and
that the D’Souza Committee report had recommended inclusion of de-reserved plots under newer
market mechanisms of TDR and AR, all that was left was the sanctioning of the Development Plan
itself by the state government. The Shrinvasan Committee was formed by the state government to
undertake this task.

71
Debi Goenka, interviewed by author in May 2006

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The street as an arena

On 1 October 1989, about 100,000 middle class and tribal residents of Vasai marched in protest
against changing the zoning of the area from green to urbanizable. The police used violence to break
up the march; scores of marchers were beaten up and arrested. Despite this repression, the protests
continued against this Development Plan prepared by CIDCO, which according to the environmental
groups would spell the doom of Vasai if implemented in toto.

Contrary to the Island City, in the tribal dominated north-western suburban region the strategy of
mobilization and litigation went hand in hand. The pro-environmental coalition reached out to the
tribal communities, joining them with middle class residents, village panchayats, church organizations
and human rights groups in a non-violent mass movement against the pro-growth coalition.

On 17 July 1990, the Janata Dal, Harit Vasai Sangarsh Samiti and Hind Mazdoor Kisan Parishad
(Indian Workers and Farmers Platform—affiliated with Janata Dal) organized a march from Azad
Maidan (opposite the BMC head office) to Chowpatty. 72 The march was meant as a protest against the
de-reservation of plots in Mumbai and Vasai, and demanded the Governor of Maharashtra to
intervene.

The marchers handed over a memorandum to the Governor of Maharashtra demanding that the 1,400
and 285 plots de-reserved by the Shiv Sena and Congress (I) be restored to their original status and a
commission of enquiry be instituted to probe the affair. The march, compounded with the MLA
protests in the assembly, was a key stimulus behind the state government’s decision to establish the
D’Souza Committee to investigate the 285 de-reservations.

Print media as an arena

From the extensive newspaper coverage of the de-reservation issue, it is clear that it generated
substantial interest. Newspapers and magazines regularly followed up on the Development Plan
process. A review of the various published articles shows that the media helped the protesting groups
voice their opinions. IAS officers—such as D. T. Joseph, the Urban Secretary during that period, J. B.
D’Souza, who led the committee on inquiry into de-reservations, and S. S. Tinaikar, the Municipal
Commissioner during that period—also wrote articles in the press focusing on the political, economic
and administrative angles to the de-reservation debate. The advantage of using this arena was that it
helped bring official information into the public realm, rising questions and allowing for clarifications
by different actors. The limitation of this arena was that it did not provide for an in-depth policy
analysis of why de-reservations were being carried out despite public protest. Analysis in the print
media stopped at the financial interests of actors and did not provide insights into the structural
problems of implementing the Development Plan or for that matter in identifying the conflicting
values of actors.

Structure of the no-growth coalition

As shown in figure 7.1, the coalition spanned different sectors, including a few political party
representatives, who took up the issue in the assembly and on the streets. It covered civil society
groups from the Island City of Mumbai and the Vasai-Virar Region. It also included ex-municipal
commissioners, such as J. B. D’Souza, who guided the civil society groups in the choice of plots for
study. While some members contributed sporadically, others—most prominently the MLA architect
Chandrashekhar Prabhu—provided consistent leadership and networking assistance throughout the

72
The march was led by Mrinal Gore, Ranjit Bhanu, Baburao Samant, and Sharad Rao (the leaders of Janta Dal, a national
level political party with expressed professed socialist ideology).

125
entire period. Certain individuals and organizations played the bridging role amongst the various
subsystems of the coalitions. Chandrashkehar Prabhu not only played a role in the assembly but also
worked closely with civil society groups. He shared information with the network and supported street
action. Similarly, BEAG was also involved in guiding the protest movement in the Vasai-Virar
Region.

Other actors, such as large landowners, were active more behind the scenes. However, their financial
support to BEAG is known and often questioned by government officers and other housing rights
groups. Therefore, a section of large landowners who would benefit from retaining their lands as No
Development Lands and thereby escape acquisition under ULCRA appears to have shared a common
interest with the environmental civil society groups (see figure 7.3).

Figure 7.3: Members and Network of the No-Growth Coalition

Private Sector
Public Sector

Members of the
Landowners Bombay
Legislative Assembly

Selected Ex commissioner of BMC

Large Congress And planners
And Socialist
’s
MLA

BEAG Tribal Rights organizations, socialist groups,

human rights, church group middle class
SBC
And Of Vasa- Virar Region
Red line only information BCT
Blue line only financial support
Bombay Civil Society
Island city Of Vasai Virar
Civil society

The coalition does take up substantial joint actions. Even within the Bombay Island City groups there
is little co-ordination as each one files PILs separately. Thus, it appears that it would be incorrect to
call this multi-actor formation a coalition. Even though the multi-actor formation does share common
beliefs and they do benefit from actions (even if taken independently), they do not find it necessary to
appear as one formation. As a result they are unable to generate sufficient joint benefits from working
together through collective co-operations. Further, powerful allies (Mrinal Gore of Janta Dal) had
joined the growth coalition covertly to benefit from the de-reservation for their mass-housing project
at Goregaon East. Debi Goenka of the BEAG recalls. ‘There was no conscious effort to build a
network. There were serious limitations to communication. Mrinal [Gore] and Sharad Pawar were
friends and they were constantly in touch discussing about their own plot. We sat down with
Chandrashekar Prabhu a few times.’ 73

Thus, it would be fair to conclude that the no-growth multi-actor formation was not only short on
resources and allies, but was also not able to build sufficient motivation for coordinated action, thus
functioning as a fragmented entity. The formation over time lost its allies to the pro-growth coalition,

73
Chandrashekar Prabhu, interviewed by author in November 2006

126
losing out to the coalition’s co-option tactics. The strategies used by the pro-growth coalition were
much more effective in dismantling the no-growth formation. Impact of the efforts by 1990, indicated
that the formation (what was till then primarily a coalition for environmental protection) had been
successful in bringing to public view the builder-politician-mafia nexus and practices of rent seeking
that were well entrenched in the land management system, including politicians and IAS officers.
They had also successfully raised a demand vis-à-vis the government—the ‘right to know’. It later
crystallized into a demand for legislation on the people’s right to information. Some of the issues
raised by the no-growth formation were universal; for example, some members of the growth
coalition (such as J. B. D’Souza) joined the ‘right to know’ struggle. In 1990, D’Souza teamed up with
the Save Bombay Committee and BEAG to file a petition in the High Court demanding information
on the de-reserved plots. The closed decision-making process was being questioned by both the civil
society groups as well as a section of IAS officers. This is seen as giving rise to what came to be
known as the Right to Information Act, adopted by the Government of India in 2005.

7.3 POLICY BROKERS AND THEIR ROLE

Policy brokers have been defined as mediators of disagreements between coalition and formations,
especially when issues escalate into political problems. Conflicts are mediated by policy brokers who
seek to find an acceptable compromise (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1999).

As fallout of the litigations and active environmental and action groups, a broader debate was initiated
by the state government in 1990-91 to discuss the framing of the development control rules for
Mumbai, under the leadership of D. T. Joseph, the Urban Development Department Secretary at the
time. Joseph performed the role of policy broker and engaged in discussion on the Development Plan
not only with the environmentalists but was also a key policy broker on Coastal Regulation Zones
(CRZ), which were being discussed with the Government of India. D. T. Joseph used various spaces to
perform his task as broker for the state government growth coalition. He wrote a lengthy article in the
Times of India titled (misleadingly) ‘Land reservation norms arbitrary’, in October 1990. He spoke at
conferences organized by the Indian Merchants Chambers. He presented papers in academic
conferences on the growth of Mumbai, and also was the state representative to the Supreme Court on
litigation on the CRZ norms.

The late 1980s and early 1990s were a period of intensive policy reform in India. For Bombay itself
three important urban development policies—the Development Plan of Mumbai, the CRZ Act 74 and
the formation of a Heritage Committee and Heritage List—were being discussed with the same set of
actors. 75 They were being discussed simultaneously; often advancing in one policy area required
conceding something in other policies.

D. T. Joseph was against the CRZ norms and did not see the value of applying them to Bombay
(Joseph 1996, 299): ’It is a pity that we don’t see anywhere any objective clearly stated for these
coastal zone regulations. We seem to be almost exercising control for the sake of control!’ A section
of the pro-environmental coalition saw D. T. Joseph as a government official representing the interests
of the builders lobby, i.e. a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 76

74
In the early 1990s, the Ministry of Environment (Government of India) issued a notification under the Environmental
Protection Act of 1986, restricting reclamation and other activities in coastal areas. It also restricted the permitted height of
buildings in coastal areas. These norms had to be included into the development control rules of Bombay.
75
The government published a draft list of 624 buildings in the Mumbai municipal area in 1991; it also formulated guidelines
for classification/grading of heritage buildings.
76
Debi Goenka, interviewed by author in May 2006.

127
Figure 7.0.4: Co-option of different actors into the No-Growth Coalition

Small and Medium

Agricultural Tenants
Land holders -1984

Section of large Engineers

Land owners, political parties, Planners of
Central government heavy weights BMC
Via the reservation of 289 plots by CM
in 1989 Engineers/ Architects
’s
Small and Medium
Land Owners/ Builders
from’ the early 1970’s
Secretary Urban Development
Government of Maharashtra Councilors and
As policy broker Civil society groups of
the land occupiers
85-86 (planning committee)
Bombay
Environment
organization
No-growth coalition
Actors in 1991
Vasai Virar
No growth movement

Most of the protesters, activists and architects were included in the discussions hosted by D. T. Joseph
over framing the new rules for development of the city. One of the direct outcomes of these debates
was the promotion of an idea of Accommodation Reservation (AR), for the creation of public
amenities, and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR), for those amenities where in situ land sharing
was not possible. The idea was promoted by government officers as an incentive to attract private
landowners to offer their lands for the creation of public amenities on their own initiative. In reality, as
the landowners had already paid large sums of money to politicians, it was difficult for them to go
back on their decision of part de-reservation. TDR and AR instruments kept the promise where a part
of the plot could be up-zoned and used for private benefit, while a section remained for public use.
These new instruments were acceptable to small- and medium-size landowners and builders as they
had been pressing for de-reservation of amenity plots.

The environmental groups of Bombay, too, saw this as a good compromise as it reduced the strong
influence of politicians and landowners/developers in decision-making processes. The outcome of
these compromises and the new land management policies of AR are examined in the next chapter. It
is important to mention that the new AR policy institutionalized the policies promoted by the pro-
growth coalition and was the first step towards formation of a Liberal Land Regime for Mumbai—a
regime that allowed the private sector to play a bigger role in decision-making regarding the
construction of public amenities. The environmentalists supported this change and they too (albeit
feeling somewhat defeated) came into the fold of the pro-growth coalition (see figure 7.4).

According to Debi Goenka, ’Everyone bought into the idea. In the court the state government said that
they were setting up a new committee to study the 285 plots, which was to examine every single plot
de-reservation. D. T. Joseph was the secretary then, he was a very honest person and a straight forward
officer but he was all for the private sector…amongst us too, there were differences…some of us were
of the opinion that half a loaf of bread is better than none. 77 Chandrashekhar Prabhu recalls the
negotiations between the policy broker and the no-growth coalition, ‘Mr. D. T. Joseph, the Secretary

77
Debi Goenka, interviewed by author in May 2006.

128
Urban Development (a yes minister somewhat honest) called for meetings with civil society groups
and said let’s turn the policy on its head and make it interesting for landowners to come forward with
their lands instead of avoiding transfers of land to government for public purpose. Earlier landowners
were not satisfied with the compensation which was given as per market rate as per Land Acquisition
Act now they are satisfied as the compensation in the forms of construction rights and TDR is
acceptable to them.’ 78

The civil society groups of the Vasai-Virar Region were not a part of the negotiations process and
remained outside of the growth coalition. There were several major differences between land issues in
Bombay and Vasai-Virar. First, the demand of the tribal and other residents of the region was to
completely reverse the land zoning to its original green zone; they refused to dilute their position in
any manner. Second, the price of land was much lower than in Bombay, making TDR and AR not
financially viable options in this region. Third, the Vasai-Virar Region is far from Bombay and
received much less media coverage than the 285 de-reserved plots. Fourth, the movements there did
not have the support of large industrial landowners—a very powerful lobby at the national level. As a
result of these factors the anti-growth movement of the Vasai-Virar Region did not merge with the
growth coalition and their struggle against the builder-politician-mafia coalition continues to this day.

7.4 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

Compared to the first plan, the drafting of the second (revised) Development Plan was a long drawn-
out process, plagued by conflicting interests between the two coalitions (anti-growth and pro-growth)
and resulting in court cases, followed by negotiations. The delay was caused by the contentions over
the land use of the plan.

It appears that adopting a new Development Plan requires a very broad based mandate, because power
is fragmented amongst landowners, land holders and land occupiers. The capacity of the elected
officers of the local and state government is diluted by their accommodative concessions. This is
necessary for political survival, given the political economic realities of election costs and maintaining
constituencies (slum dwellers who vote and private entrepreneurs who fund parties) in today’s Indian
democracy. Thus the Development Plan and the rules that govern it are formulated only by including
all direct or indirect beneficiaries in the policymaking process. This consensus is built through
exchange of direct benefits, either in the form of exemptions to rules, accommodation of private
interests in rule making or by joint pact making to implement projects, which benefit powerful actors.

The ‘dominance’ of the pro-growth coalition is due to the collective strength of the two associations
(one based on class: squatters and one on profession: PEATA) and the actors. This coalition of various
actors: political representatives and parties, the legislature, the private sector, the landowners, and the
squatters who occupy the land in question. The two associations that form the pro-growth coalition
have a long history of working together. They are held together by the frequent transactions carried
out between them. Habitation on one plot for a long period is yet another factor that binds association
of squatters to each other. The new regime was based on the two associations, which recognized each
other’s status and entitlements and were capable of reaching and implementing relatively stable
compromises (pacts) in the pursuit of their collective interests.

This network of middle class groups was successful in voicing the interest of the citizen (they do not
see squatters as citizens) This was sufficient to attract attention and attain a negotiating position as an
interest group, but the state did not provide this group with sufficient opportunity to bring about big
policy changes (neither through their interventions in the courts or nor through the assembly).

The no-growth multi-actor formation of Bombay (made up of environmentalists and middle class
citizens) had its power source in planning law and regulations; however, without a favourable court
judgment it was only able to gain entry into—not wield power over— the policy negotiation process.

78
Chandrashekar Prabhu, interviewed by author in November 2006.

129
Growth protesters saw the NPIs as a good compromise; they felt that they accommodated their
interests, and, simultaneously, decreased the complete takeover of the decision-making process by
politicians and landowners/developers (‘half a loaf is better than none’).

Observers criticized the accommodation process as a bargain: one policy alternative clashed with
another, and a deal was made between state government and the environmental groups. Some of the
policies championed by the environmental groups were accepted, but they had to concede and accept
the joint project of the state government and the two associations to usher a neo-liberal urban land
regulation regime, justified as necessary means by the state to achieve the goals of the Development
Plan and provide more public amenities.

130
CHAPTER 8: DIRECT AND INDIRECT OUTPUTS OF THE NEW PLANNING
INSTRUMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter introduced the actor’s strategies and the coalitions that emerged in the mid-1980s
and were active till 1991, when the development control rules for the second Development Plan were
finalized. The aim of the following chapters (8 and 9) is to present the findings vis-à-vis the outcomes
of the activities undertaken by the actors with the aim of influencing the Development Plan. Two types
of outcomes are being assessed: the outputs of the process and the impact. In this chapter the output is
presented. A direct output is the developmental policy on the delivery of public amenities and the
second output is the public amenities produced as a result of implementing the policy. Indirect outputs,
such as increased number of actors participating in the delivery process, are also presented in this
chapter.

The ultimate test of any policy is its achievements, which can be assessed rather simply by measuring
the quantitative outputs of amenities delivered by the policy. To assess the quantitative output of the
New Planning Instruments (NPIs) various variables were used: the quantity of plots acquired,
existence of amenity on site, access to the amenity, land sharing amongst stakeholders and ownership
of amenity. In section 8.2, the reader is presented with the direct policy output or the number of public
amenities constructed via the use of three NPIs. Taking the discussion on outputs further, this chapter
also examines some of the indirect outputs of the New Planning Instruments. The findings from
various surveys suggest that New Planning Instruments have indirect impacts on land markets. The
existing land prices drive decisions on spatial location of public amenities generated via the NPI. In
the final section 8.8 the conclusions are presented.

8.1 NEW DEVELOPMENT CONTROL RULES AND LIBERALIZATION OF LAND

REGULATIONS

The sanctioned Development Plan of 1991 and its Development Control Regulations was enlarged to
include a number of NPIs within its formal framework. Transfer of Development Rights (TDR),
Additional Floor Area Ratio (AFAR) or Higher Floor Space Index (FSI), and Accommodation of
Reservations (AR) were some of the most prominent ones. These new instruments were designed to
address the challenge faced by the state in securing funding and providing public amenities (less
focused on management or maintenance of the amenities). The government saw the benefits in
allowing building incentives and TDR in the form of compensations, seen as more conducive for
realizing the Development Plan goals of providing public amenities instead of providing owners cash
compensation.

Traditional Planning Instruments (such as the LAA) had four known weaknesses: resistance by
reluctant landowners who found the compensation under the Traditional Planning Instruments (TPIs)
system insufficient to cover their loss; the absence of means to accommodate plot occupiers and
tenants; the absence of earmarked funds for implementing the Development Plan; and the problems of
interdepartmental coordination. The details behind the NPIs and how they are able to overcome some
of the difficulties of traditional instruments are explained below (figure 8.1).

131
Figure 8.1: New Planning Instruments

Additional Floor Area Ration (FSI)

On site use of AFAR

Use of AFAR off site

Accommodation Insitu Redevelopment

Reservation for For public amenities TDR
Public amenities ( 3 actors) -Reservation Public Amenities
(two actors) -Roads
-Heritage
--SRA/PAP
--redevelopment of dilapidated buildings

Transfer of Development Rights, Additional Floor Area Ratio and Accomodation Reservation all
include built-in mechanisms for self-financing of construction of amenities. In TDR, the financing
required for the public amenity is raised by the government’s issuing of TDR certificates, which are
then sold on the open market. These TDRs are bought by plot owners who would like to increase the
built-up areas on their plots. These areas are by definition the more expensive plots, which can fetch
sufficiently high real estate prices to pay for the construction of both the public amenity and the
individual private property.

Under earlier planning instruments the landowners received cash payment for their land, i.e. land
acquisition required transfers of large sums of money from the government to the landowners. Under
the NPIs, the government offers AFAR or TDR as compensation, thus generating a new source of
revenue for the state, once properties are sold on the real estate markets. Compared to earlier sources
(taxes, user fees and monetary transfers from other levels of government), this new source is hassle
free and free of politics

TDR as a new property product

Under the traditional system, landowners were compensated in cash for the land they ceded for public
amenities. In theory, the relationship was primarily between the landowner and the state. It was an
exchange of goods between two actors, whereby the state is the more powerful actor with the power to
frame the rules of the game regarding the selection of the land to be acquired as well as the time of
acquisition (see figure 8.2). The problem with this kind of compensation was that the private
landowner objected to the methods used by the stronger state actor to set the level of compensation
based on the price of the land. The weaker actor, the landowners, found different means of subverting
the efforts of the state to acquire their land. Also the state found it difficult to generate the required
financial assets to acquire large areas of expensive land from private landowners. The administration
of acquisitions is a quasi-legal process involving various departments in both local and state
government, requiring co-ordination and co-operation of different government officials. Another
problem with this relationship was that it assumed that there was no third party, completely
overlooking land occupiers, tenants and other stakeholders. As a result, tenants and land occupiers
used other means to influence land transfers and their development.

132
This changed when the stronger state actors made the exchange more attractive for landowners. The
state used various means to make land transfer and development attractive: compensation given in the
form of TDR, compensation given in the form of land sharing and inviting landowners to constructs
the public amenities. As TDR provided an alternative to cash payment, it also benefitted the state
government as they no longer had to depend on raising funds for land acquisition.

Figure 8.2: Conversion of privately owned land for public amenities through Land Acquisition Act

Public sector
compensation awarding authority

Gives money as
Gives land
compensation for land

Private sector
landowner

The TDR instrument offers the landowner certificates of development equal to the land area (with
development potential) acquired by the state, with an understanding that landowners can use these
certificates to seek permission for higher AFAR on another piece of land in specified locations of the
city. TDR can therefore be sold on the open market, whereby the buyer can either develop a plot or opt
to wait (see figure 8.2). The TDR instrument is a fungible market product that can be sold and bought,
transferred and consumed (similar to other property products, for example, an apartment or plot of
land).

133
Figure 8.3: Conversion of privately owned land for public amenities through TDR

Mr. V. K. Phatak, the former Chief Planner of the MMRDA referred to TDR as ’currency’, while Mr.
J. Mehta, the senior architect who first recommended the TDR instrument to city planners, shares,
’TDR has now become a regularly traded commodity like any other asset and rates are being quoted
area wise’. 79 This aspect of currency or fungibility (i.e. transferability /de-linking from a specific plot
of land) is a major shift from the static view of the approved Development Plan.

The state government has manipulated TDR to such an extent that it has replaced traditional revenue
sources and has emerged as a parallel legal currency, without disturbing the existing urban tax
structure. For the cash-strapped Maharashtra government, Mumbai’s easily fungible TDR instrument
is the ‘manna’ to fund projects within and even outside Mumbai. For instance, the state government
has sold TDR generated in Mumbai to pay for the construction of a new building for the state’s liaison
office in the federal capital, New Delhi. Clearly, TDR is a much more attractive to property developers
and owners than the old fashioned, lengthy, low-return system of receiving cash payments from the
state for their land.

AR and In-situ as means of land sharing between actors

AR is a kind of land sharing instrument that allows for the reserved land plot to have shared uses: for
the public amenity for which it has been reserved as well as for private development, which can be
marketed. The only difference between land sharing and AR is that in AR also the development rights
are shared. Further, the developer is also expected to construct the public amenity and hand it over to
the local government. Thereafter, this public amenity belongs to the local government and it is the
responsibility of the local government to ensure that the amenity is maintained and managed.

In AR, a section of the plot is built on and sold on the market by the developer to finance the cost of
producing the public amenity, a type of cross-subsidizing mechanism. Thus in theory, the dependency
on funding from the state is shifted to the ‘market’, as the funds for the amenity are raised by the
private landowner producing and selling housing or commercial units on the market. However, in the
end middle- and higher-income buyers (i.e. those who purchase these units) are the end consumers of
AR and TDR, and are cross-subsidizing the public amenities.

79
Interview conducted by researcher, 27April 2007.

134
In the In-situ projects, land and development rights sharing takes place among three actors. In-situ
projects are generally situated on private lands that have a reservation for a public amenity and also
house a squatter settlement on the property. In such scenarios, land sharing and development rights
sharing takes place between (1) the private landowner/developer, (2) the squatter community, which is
re-housed in high-rise apartment units on the site itself, and (3) the public amenity constructed on the
site itself. The private developer is given higher FSI to construct the housing for squatters free of cost
and at the same time construct the public amenity. The private developer secures the funds for these
developments by constructing high-income housing on the same plot of land and selling it on the open
market. Thus this instrument is similar to the AR as it also has an element of a built-in cross-subsidy.

NPIs are attractive as they can generate the market value of the plot and are at the same time a product
that can be easily transferred and sold (fungibility), within the limitations set by the development
control rules on the geographic location. NPIs depend on cross-subsidization as a financial tool to
raise funds for public amenities. In the AR and AFAR instruments, the sale components which provide
the cross-subsidy are constructed on the site itself. In TDR, the cross-subsidy element is constructed
elsewhere in areas with higher land prices.

Extending TDR to construction of PAP housing

From 1993 to 1997, two types of TDR Certificates were being offered by the MCGM, one for those
landowners who lost their lands in road building activity and the other to those who lost land to public
amenities, such as schools, green spaces and hospitals. Road building and construction of public
amenities are direct responsibilities of the MCGM (Balachandran, n.d., 17). Over and above the TDR
offered in exchange for ceded land, TDR was also given to builders/contractors for constructing
amenities.

In 1997, Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena-BJP government further liberalized the TDR instrument and offered
it to developers in exchange for their undertaking of slum redevelopment projects for high-density
slums (e.g. Dharavi) and for PAP housing. 80 Under the Slum Redevelopment Projects, TDR was
offered for the surrender of lands as well as for construction, so both the landowner and the builders
were compensated with TDR certificates equal to the area they had surrendered or constructed (see
figure 8.4).

Figure 8.4: Three types of TDR generated in Mumbai (1993-2003)

Source: Balachandran (2005).

The amount of funds that can be harnessed for the construction of public amenities varies per project
and is directly related to the plots’ market value (largely depending on location), the number of slum
residents who need to be rehabilitated, TDR prices and the type of amenity reservation on the plot. As

80
PAP stands for ‘Project Affected People’.

135
there are many variables influencing the funds that the project can generate, there is also large
variation in the private landowners’ and builders’ motivation to undertake development. Land plots
that yield high prices are more likely to attract private sector entrepreneurs than low price areas.

The use of NPI has brought many local and non-state actors into the funding and production of public
amenities. The diversification of funding using cross-subsidization has also stimulated participation by
private landowners, builders, slum dwellers and sale component consumers, middle class households
and retail housing financial intuitions.

Institutional shifts between TPI and NPI

This section provides a comparison between the Traditional Planning Instruments (TPIs) and the New
Planning Instruments (NPIs) regarding the institutional mechanisms and involved process, further
examining shifts in modes of co-ordination within and amongst institutions.

Traditional Planning Instruments: Hierarchy as means of co-ordination under the Land Acquisition
Act (LAA)

As per the LAA, the role of acquiring land for public purposes rests within different departments of
the state government. The role they performed included measuring the plot of land, setting the price,
informing the private landowner, raising financing for acquisition, compensating the landowner 81 and
responding to claims or resistance by private landowners. Once the land plots to be acquired were
identified under the Development Plan, the role of the Development Planning Department of the
MCGM was to prioritize land plots and determine those that are to be acquired first, based on the
feedback received from local representatives (councillors). Once the local government receives a
request from the local councillor, the MGCM files a request to the Department of Urban Development
of the state government indicating the need of the citizens. On the basis of this request, the state
government machinery is set in motion and the Special Land Acquisition Officer of the state
government is brought into the picture along with the collector.

81
Interviews and records of the acquisition process of Latif Villa show the following actors to be involved in different stages
of the acquisition process.

In the case of Latif Villa Compound (reserved as green area in 1964) the title holder of the plot discovered in 1978 that the
local government had not undertaken any action to acquire the land and sent a purchase notice to the local government under
section 127 of the MR & TP Act of 1966. A purchase notice forces the government to either purchase the reserved land or to
return it to the private landowner. This prompted the local government to initiate acquisition proceedings in 1978. In 1986,
the SLAO (Special Land Acquisition Office) set the price of Rs.44.26 lakhs for the said piece of land. However, the local
authority was not prepared to pay such a high price, because—according to the local authority—the land was encumbered
and large compensation had to be paid. Thus the delay caused the acquisition proceedings to lapse. According to a MCGM
planner, ‘the reason for delays in acquisition is because not sufficient priority was given by the local government’.

Although in theory the initiating power for acquisition appears to rest with the local councillor, who is a part of the
government, in reality it is the title holder or the CA who initiates the process by serving a purchase notice to the
government. This sets the tone of the interest shown by the private individual. Acquisition takes place only when one of the
parties is seriously interested to push it through. This strategy of the government to wait for one of the landowners to make
the first move is probably because a direct title holder or possessionary is more capable of striking a deal with all the various
claimants of the plots.

Almost all powers of measuring and setting the price of the plot and fundraising as well as resettlement of tenants fell under
the jurisdiction of the state and local government and their various departments. The title holder of the Latif Villa plots
recalls, ‘The SLAO had settled the awarded amount of Rs.10.6 crores in 1996, but the BMC approached the commissioner of
the Konkan division. She said the value was too much, and I said you are doing injustice to me by offering me peanuts; the
commissioner said, ”you can go to the court as per the procedure if you feel we are unfair.” I was tired of going to court and I
accepted a much lesser amount. Even the 10.6 cores were not as per the real market rate.’
The possessionary filed two writ petitions to the High Court and one to the Supreme Court. It took a total of 40 years to
acquire the Latif Villa Compound. Delays with the government include election activities (state government), delays in
seeking funds from the state government and disputes on the price set by the SLAO.

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A large department of the Special Land Acquisition Office executes the acquisition, with the land-
utilizing agency (e.g., MCGM for community spaces and the state government department for
housing) raising the funds for compensation and construction of the public amenity.

The realization of acquisition depended on the initiative and file-pushing ability of both the amenity
delivery institution (for public amenities in Mumbai this is the MCGM) as well as the private
landowners. Also the landowners can use formal means—for example, filling out a purchase notice—
to secure a response by the state. According to the LAA, if the government does not act and acquire
the zoned land within a certain period of implementation of the Development Plan, the private
landowner can file a purchase notice, demanding that either the state government acquire the land or
remove the zoning from their land. After the landowner receives the compensation for the land,
ownership is transferred to the state government. The plot of land is then given to the authority
responsible for delivering the public amenity as per the zoning of the plot of land. For example, if the
land is reserved for an open space amenity, then after acquiring the plot of land the state government
will transfer it to the MCGM, the body responsible for developing it.

In implementing the traditional planning instrument (LAA) for public amenities, there is a bifurcation
of powers between local and state government. The local government’s role is to raise finances for the
acquisition. The legal powers of acquisition rest with the state government, which acquires selected
plots at the expressed demand by the MCGM. As neither the state government nor the local
government had funds dedicated to acquisition as part of their planned budget, the entire process of
land acquisition to realize Development Plan reservations looks like a herculean task, in which local
government officials has to co-ordinate with state government officials to allocate funds for land
acquisition on a special basis each time. The predominant mode of co-ordination under the TPI was
amongst the various levels of government and their departments, and is hierarchical in nature. It does
not mean that markets and networks do not exist. Markets—in terms of land markets and land prices—
do influence the quantum of compensation. Similarly, active networks exist between private sector
actors and various levels of elected representatives and officials. However, the hierarchical model
remained as the dominant mode of co-ordination.

New Planning Instruments: Markets and networks as co-ordination tools

Under the New Planning Instruments—TDR, AR and In-situ redevelopment—a new institutional
arrangement emerged. A study of the institutional arrangement of the Mumbai Urban Transport
Project (which used the TDR instrument) shows that two stages of institutional changes have taken
place. First, the land acquisition arm of the state government (the SLAO) has been included within the
organizational hierarchy of the MUTP, thereby reducing the need for hierarchical co-ordination among
state and local government. Second, the institutional arrangement of the MUTP, because of its use of
the TDR instrument, has developed co-ordination networking with the MCGM—the only agency
issuing TDR certificates. Further, the MMRDA also depends on the TDR market for the sale of its
own TDR, thereby increasing its links with markets. Similarly, the MHADA and the Slum
Redevelopment Authority (SRA) have increased networking with the MCGM, due to its power to
issue TDR certificates. The dependency of the MCGM on the state government for funding land
acquisition for public amenities has been reduced.

The use of TDR certificates has sped up the transfer process: the direct transfer between private owner
and MCGM skips the ‘middle man’, i.e. state government. Thus we see that with the new planning
instruments, the MCGM has increased its importance as a central institution in Mumbai.
Simultaneously, it also resulted in a power shift from state to local government. Compared to
traditional planning instruments, which depend on a hierarchical mode of co-ordination, the TDR
depends more on networking amongst institutions and market co-ordination as a means of exchange.
In AR and In-situ, compensation is offered in the form of the Additional Floor Area Ratio, which can
be used in constructing housing or commercial units and sold in the market. This constitutes a shift
from cash compensation by the government to funds raised through sales on real estate markets.
Simultaneously, the coordination that occurred primarily between state and landowner now transforms
into a broader coordination—between the market, the community and the private landowner.

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8.2 DIRECT POLICY OUTPUTS OF THE NEW PLANNING INSTRUMENTS

Contribution of NPI in land acquisition

From 1991 to 2003, MCGM data shows that 364 plot sites were acquired using the TDR instrument,
which would have cost the government Rs.1,582 crores or 26.4 million Euros if cash compensation
had been given (Balachandran n.d.). The number of plots acquired using the TDR instrument had
swelled to 1,679 plots with a total area of 6.6 km² by 2005 (MCGM 2005, see table 8.1). However, the
number of reservations or public amenity plots acquired using the TDR instrument is much smaller
and constitutes only 560 plots, with another 615 earmarked for slum development projects (in total
1,175 plots).

Table 8.1: Acquired TDR plots acquired and their use (1997-2005)

TDR Plots/Projects Area in square metres

Reservations (ground, gardens, schools,
560 2,277,839
public housing, R & R, etc.)
Road 500 796,585

Slum Development Project. 615 3,549,332

Heritage 3 1,002

D.C.R. 1991 33/7 under TDR 1 1,800

Total 1,679 6,626,559

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

Accommodation Reservation, on the other hand, has been used to develop 166 plots in the last
Development Plan period. Only 48 plots have been developed using the In-situ instrument. In terms of
the share of amenities developed by the different instruments, TDR steals the show with 560 amenity
plots acquired (table 8.1). Amongst the three NPIs, it appears that TDR is the preferred instrument,
and has been used extensively to acquire land. In 85% of the cases TDR was used as a planning
instrument, while AR was used only for 12 % of the land plots and only on 4% of plots was the In-situ
instrument used (table 8.2). The low use of the In-situ instrument is also a result of the High Court
order which has brought a stay in a case filed by civil society groups. But the prime reasons for its low
use are connected to limits to value realization and the greater liability of builder/landowner.

Table 8.2: Public amenity reservations plots realized via the three NPIs

Total municipals
Type of instrument Percent of total
plot figures
TDR used for Reservation plots and slum
1,175 84.5
redevelopment plots (560+615)
Accommodation Reservation (AR) 166 12

In-situ redevelopment 49 3.5

Total plots 1,390 100

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

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For this study, data was gathered from a sample of 96 82 plots developed under the TDR instrument
(selected from the municipal data source), 29 plots under AR, and 29 plots under the In-situ re-
development instrument. The findings of the survey and the conducted interviews on the plot sites are
presented in more detail below.

Table 8.3: Size of survey sample

Percent of
Total Municipal Sample size
Type of Instrument sample of total
plot figures surveyed/ located
surveyed 83
TDR used for reservations and
1,175 96 8
slum development projects
Accomodation Reservation
166 29 17
(AR)
In-situ redevelopment 49 29 59

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

Findings of the survey conducted on amenities produced using TDR

As shown in table 8.1, a total of 1,679 plots were issued TDRs under five different categories: TDR
for public amenity reservation, Road TDR, Slum Development Projects, and for Heritage buildings.
As the interest of the study only covers public amenities, only reservation TDR and Slum
Development Projects were surveyed for this study, 96 plots in total. The section below gives the
analysis of the plot survey findings; based on interviews with either the amenity managers or users
(table 8.3).

Ten percent of plots were either disputed or fenced. Almost 37% of surveyed TDR plots were found to
be vacant with no usable amenities. In these locations, TDR had only been used as compensation to
acquire the land—not to undertake any development. Only in 53% a functional amenity was found on
the plot, of which a majority were Slum Redevelopment or housing for Project Affected Persons
(PAP) housing (table 8.4). It appears that although the TDR mechanism has been successful in
acquiring lands, it has not succeeded in bringing amenities to the public.

Nine percent (NA Category of table 8.4) of the surveyed TDR plots were open spaces that were
simply fenced and locked. The reason for this was perhaps, as explained by Balachandran 84 and
supported by on-going protest by middle class citizens, MCGM‘s policy of allowing adoption of
public spaces. Under this policy, clubs and private entrepreneurs can come forward to maintain parks
and playground in exchange for permission to construct on 15% of the land and use it for commercial
uses, such as a private club (MCGM Policy for Open Spaces). Finally, 7% of the surveyed plots were
still owned by the builder or landowner.

82
See chapter 3 for sample size,
83
In the case of the TDR plots the investigators could not physically locate some plots during the field visits; as a result the
target of 10% of plots was not achieved in the case of TDR.
84
Information obtained during interview with Balachandran, April 2007.

139
Table 8.4: Functional public amenity on the plot using a TDR instrument

Frequency Percent

Yes 51 53

No 35 37
N/A
9 10
(disputed, fenced, etc.)
95 100.0

TDR has been offered for amenities such as water tunnels/pipes and for the construction of housing as
sale component of Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) projects. Questions on the current users of
the amenity indicated that the SRA projects were built for slum residents or for the PAPs housing of
large infrastructure projects.

Table 8.5: Fees required for use of the amenity on plots developed under TDR instrument

Are there any fees required to use the

Type of Amenity amenity? Total
Yes No N/A
Medical amenity 2 0 0 2
School 2 18 2 22
Public housing 1 22 0 23
Open space 5 36 7 48
Total 10 76 9 95

Of the amenities constructed using the TDR instrument, it was found that in 80% of the surveyed
cases no fees were required for using the amenity. The amenities that did require payment of fees
included open spaces and medical facilities (see table 8.5 above).

The data indicated segregation amongst the different economic classes and their use of public
amenities. Table 8.6 shows that in instances where the TDR instrument has been able to deliver public
amenities, slum and pavement dwellers form the larger section of the population that use them. While
poor residents (pavement and slum dwellers) access and use amenities such as schools, public
housing, middle-class residents only accessed open spaces.

Table 8.6: Use of amenity on plots developed through TDR instrument according to class

Members of which class generally use this amenity

Type of amenity Not in use, or Total
Pavement Slum Chawl Middle
under
dwellers residents residents class
construction
Medical amenity 0 0 0 0 2 2

School 1 5 2 0 14 22

Public housing 2 8 0 0 13 23

Open space 0 13 1 2 33 49

Total 3 26 3 2 62 96

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Table 8.7: Capacity of amenity used by type

Capacity of amenity used

Type of amenity Overused - more Total
Not used at all Underused N/A
than it can support
Medical amenity 0 0 2 0 2
School 11 2 7 2 22
Public housing 8 0 15 0 23
Open space 20 11 11 7 49
Total 39 13 35 9 96

Thirty-nine percent of the amenities were not being used at all, open spaces being a large portion. This
was probably because they were fenced and locked up. Overused amenities included medical
amenities, public housing and functional open spaces. Caretakers/users saw poor maintenance and
MCGM’s lack of funds as the main reason for the underuse of public amenities (table 8.7). Clearly
there is a need for such amenities.

Findings of survey conducted on projects using the Accommodation Reservation (AR)

A large variety of amenities has have been constructed using the AR instrument, most often welfare
centres, dispensaries and retail markets. Almost two-thirds of the surveyed AR projects were found to
be in existence for a long period of time. Only seven percent of the total surveyed AR plots were
under construction and only in one case was there any delay in the project due to a dispute. Thus, it
appears that the land sharing mechanisms between the landowner/builder and the public sector (in the
realization of public amenities using the AR) is not a disputed process (table 8.8). Probably the
absence of interested middle class users for the amenities (such as welfare centres and dispensaries) or
the absence of a squatter settlement on the plot (a third party interest) explains the larger percent of
realization using the AR instrument. Therefore it seems that when the market mechanisms fall in line
with shared interest and benefits between two actors (private and public) there is less chance of
conflicts and disputes. Also, in AR projects the private developer enjoys reduced liability.

Table 8.8: Type of amenity constructed on plot through AR instruments

Type of amenity Frequency Percent

Dispensary 11 37.9
Welfare centre & library 4 13.8
Commercial 3 10.3
Private dispensary 2 6.9
Secondary school 2 6.9
Park 1 3.4
Primary school 1 3.4
Housing 1 3.4
Playground 1 3.4
Sale components of SRA 1 3.4
District disability
1 3.4
Resource centre (DDRC)
Maternity hospital 1 3.4
Total 29 100

In a number of cases the amenity ownership was not transferred to the MCGM. The interviews with
caretakers/users indicated that in 31% of the projects, the landowners/ builders continued to own the
public amenity (table 8.9). Interviews with the municipal officer from the Real Estate Department
(responsible for handing over these amenities to other departments within the MCGM) indicated that

141
they faced difficulties in finding NGOs to take over these amenities and often had to ask the builder to
form an organization to ensure that the amenity remained operational.
Table 8.9: Land acquisition of amenity by the MCGM through AR instruments

Land Acquired Frequency Percent

Yes 20 69.0
No 9 31.0
Total 29 100.0

Table 8.10: Fees for using amenity on plots built under AR instruments

Are there any fees for

Type of Amenity using the amenity? Total
Yes No
Medical amenity 1 15 16
School 0 2 2
Public housing 1 0 1
Open space 0 3 3
Welfare centre & library 1 3 4
DDRC 1 2 3
Total 4 25 29

Survey findings for projects using In-situ redevelopment

The In-situ instrument is used in situations where a private plot of land, reserved for a public purpose
during the first and second Development Plan, could not be developed because of ‘encroachments’
and the unwillingness of the private landowner. The In-situ instrument uses a land sharing mechanism
where all the three stakeholders derive a share of the plot after it has been developed. Through this
mechanism, free housing is built for the slum dwellers, the landowner is compensated by receiving
commercial share of the real estate, and some portion of the land is used to create the public amenity
reserved on the land. Housing is delivered to the slum dwellers free of charge because the builder is
permitted to construct high-rise housing for high-income markets (i.e. a cross-subsidizing the slum
dweller housing). In this way, all three stakeholders expect to benefit from the In-situ mechanism. It is
designed as a ‘win-win’ solution and ideally accommodates the interests of all stakeholders.

From the list of 48 In-situ projects—submitted to the High Court by the municipal corporation as
evidence in the case of City Space vs. the MCGB and others—I randomly selected 29 plots for visits.85
The data gathered through the interviews carried out by the investigators provides the following
results. The investigators found that 52% of the In-situ plots had not been developed and had slums
instead; on 38% of the plots the construction had been recently completed; and 10% were still under
construction. On the completed In-situ projects, it was difficult to locate any other public amenity
other than public housing.

This implies that in a majority of the cases that used the In-situ instrument to develop public
amenities, no such amenity was constructed. Only 3% of these plots had reservations specifically for
public housing. In 52% of the In-situ projects studied, no share of the land had been dedicated to
public amenities. In 24% of the cases, where land share had been dedicated for public amenities, 90%
to 100% of the land was reserved for a public amenity (these were the projects with ‘Housing’ as a
85
These 48 In-situ projects are a full list compiled of all such projects in the MCGM area. This information only became
available through the Write Petition No 1151 of 2002.

142
reservation). The users of these housing projects were poor residents living on these plots, either in
slums, redeveloped SRA housing or as PAPs. (On 3 plots PAP housing had been constructed and this
was used for rehabilitation of pavement dwellers).

These figures clearly show that in almost 70% of the plots little or no share of the land had been
allocated for the public amenities, and the largest share of such plots had been utilized by the
builders/landowners for private use. Less than 30% of the plots had a major portion of the land
devoted to the public amenities concerned (table 8.11).

Table 8.11: Percentage of total plot area occupied by amenity on In-situ plots

Land use for public

Frequency Percent
amenity
0% 15 52
30% and less 5 17
35%-50% 2 7
90%-100% 7 24
Total 29 100

In 45% of the studied In-situ development projects respondents identified a developer as the amenity
owner, while only 28% of the plots were perceived to be owned by the MCGM. Respondents were not
able to give any clear answer in 24% of the cases (table 8.12).

Table 8.12: Current owner of the amenity structure on In-situ plots

Frequency Percent
Developer 13 45
MCGM 8 28
Any other 1 3
Not sure 7 24
Total 29 100

8.3 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NPIS

Existence of functional amenity on site

There are substantial differences among the success rate of NPI instruments in providing public
amenities. The AR instrument appears to be the most successful of all NPIs, in terms of both the
acquisition of land as well as construction of the amenity—with only 3% of the surveyed plots not
constructed and another 3% under dispute. The relative success of the AR instrument in terms of
numbers of amenities constructed can be attributed to its combination of land acquisition and
development. The AR instrument requires the landowner to hand over the section of the land on which
the amenity has been constructed along with the amenity (table 8.13).

Table 8.13: Percent of projects completed

Percent of project completed

Instrument
(LA/amenity)
AR 94
TDR 53

In-situ redevelopment 24

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A study of amenities constructed using the TDR instrument shows that only 53% of the projects have
been completed. In all other cases the amenity was not developed or the plot is being used for other
purposes.

The survey also indicated that the public amenities created using AR instruments were often much
smaller in area and size. They were often found to be located on the plot in the margin of the main sale
component, compared to amenities constructed using the traditional planning instruments. 86
The worst performing NPI is the In-situ redevelopment—in only 24% of cases was a usable amenity
found on the plots. There appears to be no location or amenity preference in explaining why some
plots have been developed and others have not. The majority of constructed amenities falls under the
Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) and PAP housing category, as opposed to the open plot
category. This is probably because the SRA and PAP housing projects offer higher benefits to builders
and the builder’s interest drives projects to completion.

Access to public amenity

This portion will provide information on the extent to which different social groups have access to the
amenity and the space where it is located. Although such amenities are in principle constructed for
open and equal access, practice indicates that there are processes of exclusion along class lines.
Education, health and housing amenities are predominantly used by poorer residents living in slums,
chawls and pavement (including PAPs). Some of these amenities are fee-based amenities (such as
private dispensaries), which can exclude the poor. Fourteen percent of the open spaces created under
the TDR instrument had entry fees, even though instituting an entry fee for open spaces is against the
very spirit of the public open space.

There is a clear class preference for which type of public amenities is used: the middle and high class
inhabitants choose private schools and hospitals, and rely on the state to provide for open spaces.
Open space appears to be the only amenity shared between middle class residents and their slum and
chawl neighbours. Thus, it is logical that the middle class civil society organizations (such as City
Space and the environmental groups) organize public action and litigation around this public amenity.

Land sharing amongst stakeholders

The number of public amenities developed using NPI is not a sufficient measure of its success; the
share of the plot of land made available by the private landowner/builder for public amenities needs
also to be considered. Another criterion is to assess the share of land that came under public
management via these instruments. In this section some of the findings from the survey on land
sharing in NPI projects between public and private uses are presented.

Table 8.14: Ownership of amenity

Percent of plots with MCGM Percent of plots with private sector

Instrument
ownership of land/public amenity ownership of land/public amenity
TDR 70 8

AR 69 31

In-situ 28 45

From the survey conducted on these instruments, it appears that the largest numbers of plots have been
acquired by TDR, making it the most successful tool for land acquisition for the Municipal
86
Two cases in recent times have brought forth the neglected public amenity created by the AR projects. In a PIL filed by
National Alliance of Peoples Movements against the private builders and local government which undertook an AR to
construct a public school and cross-subsidized it by creating a shopping mall and raised a number of violations of regulations
(e.g. a public school must have an independent entrance).

144
Corporation. The AR too followed a similar pattern. However, in In-situ redevelopment projects plot
ownership tilts in favour of the private landowner (table 8.14).
Except for one project where 50% of the plot was used for the public amenity, in majority of instances
the area used for the amenity was less than 20%. In projects using the In-situ redevelopment
instrument, analyzing the results of land sharing amongst various users reveals that in more than 60%
of the projects the entire land meant for the public amenity had been used or was under construction
for the sale component or was under use and control of the builder/landowner. Plot surveys and case
studies also show that in majority of the cases AR instrument provide only one-tenth of the total
constructed place, the rest is used by the landowners and builders. The data shows that by and large
In-situ development and AR free up more land for private benefit and there are few amenities
constructed (with the exception of In-situ redevelopment that included housing for occupiers of land
who gained a larger share of land in the project). These figures clearly show that major shares of the
land have been secured by the builders/landowners. The In-situ redevelopment instrument has largely
failed to create public amenities (save housing).

Only TDR acts as a direct substitute to financial compensation. Amongst the 560 plots of lands
acquired for the purpose of realizing amenities (reservations), 207 were earmarked for playgrounds,
140 for recreation grounds and 74 were reserved for gardens (totalling no less than 75% of the total
land acquired under reservation). Here again there is a possibility of commercializing these spaces.
Recent efforts by private actors have converted recreation grounds into a saleable item. As a result
recreation grounds have become attractive to private landowners as plans already exist to convert these
into private gymkhanas and clubs, fetching very high returns for the landowner (MCGM 2006).

Findings

The sample survey of public amenities shows that NPIs are effective in providing alternatives to cash
compensation for land acquired from small and medium landowners. It is not perceived as an
attractive compensation package by large landowners¸ who do not participate in the implementation of
new instruments. The UlCRA data shows that the large landowners are interested in getting their
entire land re-zoned into commercial land use zones. It is the small- and middle-size landowners who
benefit from NPIs. The NPIs are a more efficient compensation tool than monetary compensation;
however, they do not fully address the problem of turning acquired land into public amenities.

Some NPIs (such as TDR and AR) have a better performance rate than others in delivering education
and health amenities, which directly benefit the residents living in the neighbourhood. NPIs have also
been successfully used by the private sector in constructing rehabilitation housing for PAPs. The
performance of all three instruments was measured along four sets of indicators by using data from the
above sections (table 8.14). The NPIs were categorized according the percent of projects that met the
set indicator: ‘high’ being 70% and above plots/projects, ‘average’ being 50-70%, ‘less than average’
30-49%, and ‘low’ performance meaning that less than 30% of the projects met the criteria.

145
Table 8.15: Performance of instruments

Indicators/Instruments TDR AR In-situ

Percent of acquired land plots High Average Low

Usable amenity and availability of

Average Average Low
amenity

Percentage of private land shared

High Average Low
by constructing public amenity

Ownership of amenity by public

High High Low
sector

The analysis shows that TDR instruments perform better in terms of land sharing with public
amenities, and in terms of the direct ownership of amenity by the public sector. AR performs better in
actually delivering the public amenity, despite average land sharing with the public amenity. In-situ
redevelopment has a low performance on all counts, suggesting a need to review the instrument (table
8.14).

Comparative analysis of TPI and NPI performance

If one compares the traditional planning instruments with the new planning instruments, the following
conclusions emerge. A total of 429 (413 plus 16) plots of land were acquired using the LAA between
1967 and 1999, i.e. an average of 19.6 plots a year (9.4% of the total number of reserved plots). By
comparison, TDR is a much more efficient instrument; the government database shows that the
number of plots acquired via the TDR route is 119.9 plots annually.

All three NPIs (according to TDR and AR municipal records as well as In-situ records submitted in
court), have a total of 1,894 plots developed as public amenity plots. The percentage of public amenity
plots developed by the three New Planning Instruments is 42% of reserved plots. However, figure 8.5
shows that TDR generated open space amenities fell short of acquiring the 4,536 reserved plots in the
revised Development Plan. Thus we can assume that plots which were not acquired continue to be
held in total by private landowners. Also in terms of developed land area, TDR is more efficient—in
half the time, it was able to develop two times the area compared to plots under the LAA. However,
even though NPIs do show superior performance over traditional instruments, it needs to be assessed
whether they meet the goals set by the Development Plan. In the next section, I will examine the
indirect outputs of the new planning instruments and their impacts on different sections of society.

146
Figure 8.5: Existing, proposed and TDR generated open spaces in Mumbai

Source: Map created by author based on MCGB 1984 and MCGM 2005.

8.4 IMPACT ON LAND MARKETS

The success of any planning instrument cannot be limited to its output; it is essential to also examine
how the instrument functions in land and real estate markets and its impact on housing prices. Perhaps
the architects of the TDR policy had only partial information on land prices and could not predict the
impact the TDR market would have on land market. This section examines the impacts of the TDR
instrument on city space and the housing sector in the city.

Impact of slum redevelopment TDR on reservation TDR

There are various types of TDR: compensation for land surrendered for roads, compensation for
reservation plots, slum redevelopment, for heritage buildings, and for the redevelopment of old,
dilapidated buildings. This section will first examine the extent to which substitution exists amongst
the various type of TDR and how it impacts the prevalence of amenities. Second, the spatial

147
preferences in using TDR are examined to see whether there is any relationship between land prices
and TDR.

The introduction of slum TDR in exchange for undertaking construction of slum/PAP housing (as
discussed in the previous chapter) had a negative impact on amenity reservation TDR and road TDR.
Slum TDR is cheaper than reservation and road TDR, and builders prefer it as they benefit from
higher profits by using it in high-income areas. If TDR price fall (regardless if it is road, reservation or
slum), landowners and developers are likely to be dissuaded from producing that amenity. With the
advent of slum TDR, the value of reservation TDR decreased at first, but then recovered (see figure
8.4). Road TDR has remained stable, going down slightly in 2003. Following market mechanism, if
there are a lot of slum TDR on the market the price falls, making it more attractive than other TDR.
Thus like any other market, TDR depends on supply and demand of the commodity, which needs to be
closely monitored.

Thus, a delicate balance has to be maintained between the demand and supply of these TDR, so that
the prices remain attractive and the private sector keeps constructing amenities. As the planning
authority for Mumbai, the MCGM is required to make policies that will ensure that different TDR are
in demand, thus perpetuating the high construction growth scenario for the city.

Spatial preferences of amenities created using TDR

An analysis of the geographical location of amenities created using TDR indicates that reservation
TDRs (with open areas being the landowners’ favourite) increase in quantum towards the northern
suburbs. As land prices fall northwards, this shift in amenity choice can perhaps be explained by the
structure of land prices in the city. This is unique to the TDR instrument, as there is no clear similar
pattern in AR or In-situ projects. In this section, I will explore what factors contribute to spatial
preferences for public amenities constructed using TDR.

A ward-wide analysis of the locations where slum TDR were granted shows that 64% (around 2.2
square kilometres) of all the TDR generated in lieu of slum rehabilitation are located in M Ward. This
is a result of a combination of low land prices, TDR market dynamics and the availability of ULCRA
lands, together with direct influence of politicians to increase FSI. This has led to PAP housing
clusters emerging in the M East Ward of the city, making M Ward the main rehabilitation ward of the
city (see table 8.15 as well as figures 8.7 and 8.8).

Land prices appear to have influenced the preference shown by PAP housing developers, much of it
has occurred on the eastern side of the city. With TDR also being offered for undertaking construction
of PAP houses, one could deduce that landowners and developers find it more profitable to build
housing in low-priced areas, and in turn use the TDR generated there to build commercial properties
for sale in high-priced areas situated to the north-west of the generating plot (see figure 4.3 on land
prices and figure 8.16 on amenities).

Following the similar principle, open space amenities (such as gardens, parks, and open grounds)
appear in the southern part of the city (south of Bandra). TDR generated there can be used in the
north-west. Thus it appears that the location f the development is conditioned to the projected use of
TDR generated by the development. Open spaces for high-priced lands and PAP housing for low-
priced lands are the connecting joints bringing land prices and planning together.

With the advent of slum/PAP housing TDR in 1997, a new TDR type came on the market. Slum TDR
was partly used as compensation for land acquisition and as means to pay back builders for the PAP
housing they constructed. An analysis of slum TDR shows that much of it has gone towards
compensating landowners and builders for constructing housing to rehabilitate slum dwellers
displaced due to large infrastructure projects—such as the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP),
Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP)—and households ousted as a result of the Mithi River
Project. These ousted households are also known as Project Affected Persons (PAP). As the Mumbai

148
Metropolitan Regional Development Authority carries out large infrastructure projects, it was their
responsibility to ensure that all eligible PAP were resettled and rehabilitated as per World Bank norms
(these projects were partly funded by the World Bank). 87 Of the total 31 PAP townships constructed,
only eight were constructed on land owned by MMRDA while the rest were constructed by offering
TDR to private landowners.

Table 8.16: Variations in TDR produced public amenities according to ward

Ward Variations in TDR Amenities

2500000
TDR in square meters

2000000
Public housing BUA
1500000 Opens Spaces

1000000 Schools BUA

Medical BUA
500000

0
A B E F F (north) M (east) L H (west) K (west) P(north) T R (north)
(south)
Wards

Source: Author based on MCGM TDR data (2005).

Case Study M Ward

In the 1960s, M Ward (East and West) was a sleepy village known for its villas and hills. It was also
used to relocate displaced poor residents of the Island City as their lands were taken over in the 1950s
for urban development. Lotus colony is one such community displaced to M Ward from the western
suburb of Bandra. M Ward also houses one of Mumbai’s two solid waste landfills. In 1972, a large
Dalit (the low castes of the Hindu social order) population migrated to Mumbai—and settled in M
Ward specifically—to escape the drought that plagued rural Maharashtra. Large chunks of land in M
Ward are also occupied by industries, both small and large. This ward also houses two state-owned
petroleum refineries (Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum), a state-owned fertilizer factory
(Rashtriya Chemical and Fertilizers), the Government of India’s Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and
also the Tata Power Station. Each of these large units have their staff quarters in the ward, providing a
mix of poor and middle class housing along the main roads, and high-income housing near the
Chembur railway station. While there is a mix of social groups, the Dalits are predominant, as
Mumbai’s single largest Dalit agglomeration lives in this ward. M Ward also happens to be one of
Mumbai’s poverty hot spots, with perhaps the largest percent of households suffering high levels of
deprivation (figure 8.6, based on Baud et al. 2009).

87
Of the total Rs.4,526 crore cost of the MUTP, 57.5% came from a World Bank loan and the rest was contributed by the
state government. The MMRDA carried out the project by using TDR for resettlement housing for 75% of the total PAP
displaced as a result of the project. This huge number of state managed market sponsored high-rise housing construction is
unprecedented in modern times.

149
Figure 8.6: Index of multiple deprivations in Mumbai and percentage of slum inhabitants

Source: Baud et al. (2009).

Six PAP townships in M East Ward (two each in Anik, Lallu Bhai Compound and Gautam Nagar)
have emerged on land exempt from land acquisition under the 1976 ULCRA for construction of low-
income housing. These plots of land, which were to be surrendered to the government at a nominal
price for public housing under the ULCRA, after 30 years finally did come into government
possession as housing for PAPs in exchange for TDR.

The policy of decongestion and displacing industries out of the city has opened up many more areas
for residential use. Out of the seven PAP township projects in M Ward, two were used earlier as
parking spaces for ship containers, and three had industries which were shut down. During the 1990s,
the FSI of M Ward was changed twice. In 1991, the FSI rose from 0.5 to 0.7 and then again late in the
decade, under Chief Minister Narayan Rane 88 of the Shiv Sena, the FSI was further liberalized to 1.
Coupled with deindustrialization, this resulted in many new land plots coming into the market and
drew builders to this otherwise sleepy, polluted neighbourhood.

Demand for housing in high priced wards

Another reason for selecting M Ward as a TDR supplier was because the TDR obtained here could be
used in the north-west part of the city, where the more affluent neighbourhoods are located. Data
shows that between 15% and 16% of the TDR generated in M East Ward (slum TDR) has been
consumed in K West and H West wards respectively. Within M East Ward only 3.5% has been

88
Narayan Rane gained the leading position in the Chembur suburb of M Ward. He is often associated with the struggle of
Fulanchiwadi and other similar communities, which promoted Rane as their leader. Rane has often been credited with the
spread of the Shiv Sena in the eastern suburbs and to the Konkan belt of Maharashtra. He was Chief Minister of Shiv Sena-
BJP ruling alliance of Maharashtra from February 1999 to October 1999. In 2004, Narayan Rane joined the Congress Party.
His business relationship with Anil Aggarwal of the RNA builders (engaged in the redevelopment of Subhash Nagar in
Chembur) has received substantial coverage in the press.

150
consumed. Juhu in K West as well as Bandra and Santa Cruz of H West are experiencing substantial
new construction as old buildings and bungalows are expanding vertically or are being torn down to
make room for new buildings (table 8.16). Thus, market demand for housing in the high-end market in
a particular location and the availability of cheaper industrial lands in predominantly slum areas
dictates where PAP townships are constructed. The market decides where TDR is used and where
PAPs are resettled.

Demolitions and increasing pressure on land in low-priced areas

The TDR mechanism requires that land is transferred to the government without ‘encumbrances’; in
this context this often means the existence of a slum population. The private landowner has no legal
means to evict the land occupiers/slum dwellers and, as clearing private land is in public interest (due
to expected public amenities), the local government (under instructions from the state government)
carries out evictions and clears the plot. The clearing of the private plot by the government are input
costs that the private landowner transfers to the government before the TDR can be capitalized. 89

In early 2005, the state government along with MCGM forcibly evicted 28 slum communities in the
city of Mumbai. YUVA, an NGO that followed the demolitions, estimated that 89,991 huts were razed
and a total of 300 acres were ‘liberated’ from slum dwellers (term used by government). Of the 28
demolished communities, almost 50% were on lands owned by private landowners, while the rest
were owned by the government.

89
Information obtained during interview with Balachandran-senior planner MCGM , April 2006.

151
Figure 8.7: Distribution of the three types of TDR generated in Mumbai

Source: MCGM database on TDR (2005).

152
Figure 8.0.8: Consumption location of M-ward TDR

400000.00

350000.00

300000.00

250000.00
Slum
TDR

200000.00 Reservation
Road
150000.00

100000.00

50000.00

0.00
H/E H/W K/E K/W P/S P/N R L M/E M/W N S T
Ward

Source: MCGM database on TDR (2005).

Such demolitions without notice and/or provision of alternative accommodations are a violation of
human rights under the UN Convention of Human Rights. The impacts of these violations are
manyfold, including homelessness, loss of livelihood and increased insecurity and poverty amongst
the already very poor new migrants to the city.

The state and its various departments justified these evections of large numbers of poor inhabitants
with the need to free up land to rehabilitate another set of poor households displaced by large
infrastructure projects. This suggests that one set of poor residents is regarded as beneficiaries, while
another group is being excluded. The accusations by human rights organizations brought to light the
state’s double standards. In the name of resettling a section of the poor households (PAPs), it
undertakes land clearance by systematically targeting slum communities while leaving out lands
which have been de-reserved and occupied by the rich and powerful for commercial uses.

Increasing pressure on land and the building boom in high-priced areas

On the surface, TDR appears to be without cost to the government as the local government simply
issues certificates with the details of TDR issued and in exchange acquires land or built amenities.
However, the private landowner or entrepreneur—the official holder of the TDR—has to convert the
certificate into profit, which can be achieved only through real estate. Thus, to maximize profits the
TDR holder either sels the TDR to the highest bidder or realizes it by directly undertaking
construction in high-priced areas.

By building in high-priced areas the entrepreneur hopes to realize not only the cost of land lost in
government acquisition, but also the cost of construction and the transfer costs associated with the
process. In this way the price of housing or commercial units that use the TDR instrument are likely to
be found in high-priced areas and this may further increase the prices of already constructed units

153
there. This process fuels high housing prices in already high-price areas, thereby turning TDR
receiving neighbourhoods into exclusive housing areas of the city. Further, the prices of both
acquisition and transfer costs are paid by prospective buyers of units in high-price areas, as the real
estate entrepreneur transfers the costs to the buyers. As a result, land prices in high-price areas are
likely to go up even further and lead to inflation in the real estate market (figure 8.8).

8.5 IMPACT ON REDEVELOPED COMMUNITIES

Land, its use and its development are often contentious issues. This section will examine the impact of
NPIs on the communities that have a stake in redevelopment. The section will starts by presenting
three case studies of communities that experienced one of the NPIs. Roma Banjara, which is near
completion, is situated in M Ward; Fulanchiwadi, also in M Ward, is at the stage of the builder
seeking to sign an agreement with the residents; and the third case study, Latif Compound, has been
acquired under the traditional planning instruments and is ready for construction to commence.

Roma Banjara Housing Co-operative Society 90

When the construction work of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) was completed, the
construction workers (the majority of whom belonged to the Banjara tribe) were not required to live
on the premises any more. These workers had been living for the past decade on the BARC premises
and had formed a small settlement called Chikoowadi. When Sudhakarrap Naik (also a Banjara)
became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, some of the educated residents of Chikoowadi approached
him seeking a plot of land for the rehabilitation of the settlement. In 1983, Chikoowadi residents
received the land and a housing co-operative was formed. In the early 1990s, about 536 of these
Banjara families were moved to the western side of the ward, closer to a municipal waste landfill. A
five-acre plot was allotted to them by the state government, along with Rs.2,500 per family to
construct huts. Low-rise huts were constructed, with common toilets and water taps.

The redevelopment project

Ranji Naik, an architect by profession and also a Banjara, proposed a redevelopment project for the
entire settlement, using the Additional Floor Area Ratio (AFAR) offered for SRA, because the land on
which the community was resettled was reserved for a playground. This made it possible for
developers to utilize the incentives offered under the In-situ scheme in addition to incentives offered
under SRA. The leaders of the tribe accepted the proposal.

Naik selected a builder, Mangal Murti, and construction work started in 1995. This was soon after the
Shiv Sena-BJP coalition won the state assembly elections and declared AFAR for slum redevelopment
as well as AFAR for In-situ projects. Until today, only five of the nine proposed buildings have been
constructed. The first builder constructed one building for sale and left the project incomplete; the new
builder is not only constructing a new building for sale, but also has accessed TDR in exchange for
constructing the redevelopment section. A possible factor explaining this long, drawn out project
period is that the location on which the project is being constructed is not an attractive one for the
commercial sale component. Therefore, such projects completely depend upon cross-subsidies
provided by commercial sales of high-rise constructions, which are only viable in a high-priced area—
not the case in Roma Banjara.

The only playground on the plot is under high-tension electric wires. Construction work on the
buildings is still ongoing, with about 100 families waiting in huts for their turn to move into apartment
buildings. Further, between the playground and the plot where the redevelopment and housing
construction is taking place, a new settlement has formed. This settlement consists of former residents
of Chikoowadi who were not members of the housing co-operative. Fifty-six such families started this
settlement named Rahul Nagar, which today consists of over 150 huts inhabited mostly by extended

90
For a map of the Roma Banjara Housing Co-operative Society see chapter 9.

154
family members of the Roma Banjara Co-operative. As members of the Roma Banjara Housing Co-
operative were allocated the resettlement plot, the land is legally owned by the housing co-operative.
With the exception of the 56 families, the resettlement process made it possible for the occupiers to
become landowners. However, redevelopment of their community was only possible using NPIs if
they could declare the plot a ’slum area’.

Fulanchiwadi 91

Fulanchiwadi—renamed Mukti Nagar and Ganpat Patil Wadi by the occupiers—is situated in M
Ward. Fulanchiwadi is one of nine wadis (or nagars) that used to be agricultural lands and were turned
into habitation areas in the early 1980s. Today this area is a large settlement mostly with ground or
ground-plus-one-floor row houses. A small section of the land continues to be used for flower
cultivation.

The occupiers of the land organized to form a network with a political party, in order to access basic
services and secure protection from government organized demolitions. In the 1980s, large-scale
migration into Mumbai resulted in massive population growth in this area, with the settlement
ballooning into a large slum area.

The redevelopment project

The plot area of this village as well as the nine wadis/nagars was reserved as a green area under the
first Development Plan. The acquisition process remained incomplete as the possessionary refused the
offered amount in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile the possessionary steadily converted agricultural lands
into settlements, by renting out parts of his land to new migrants. The acquisition of the land by the
MCGM was not complete; as a result, the land is currently shared by the MCGM and the
possessionary. Residents spoke of the partnerships amongst different actors for the implementation of
the In-situ project, showing the level of fragmentation amongst local actors engaged in the
redevelopment of Fulanchiwadi:
The builder claims to develop the entire area, which according to him is some 46 acres of land.
Sterling Builder has been invited by councillor Kate of the Shiv Sena, while, on the other
hand, Kukreja Builder, who was got by the Congress Party—the Narayan Rane 92and Anil
Pathankar group—funded an organization called Mauli Pratishthan to undertake the
redevelopment of the area. The Wadar Samaj is affiliated with this builder/political group.
Despite all the attempts, the project has not gone forward, and when Narayan Rane became the
Revenue Minister it was clear that no one but he can carry out this project. So, even though
Kate won the elections the scheme could not be implemented because the entire community
was divided. 93

According to occupiers and local leaders, Sterling Builder’s strength lies in its strong financial
backing, but also in the perceived support it enjoys from Shiv Sena. Kukreja has a reputation of
undertaking high-income housing in the Chembur area and has been brought in by Narayan Rane.

According to the Shiv Sena Shakha Pramukh (leader of the branch office of the political party),
’Sterling is stronger than its rivals because it defeated the other builders during the MCGM elections.
In 2006 [just before the municipal elections], Kukreja was brought in by Congress leader Narayan
Rane [ex-Shiv Sena] as he wants to promote Anil Pathankar [before with Shiv Sena, now with
Congress] who is Narayan Rane’s old mafia buddy. They were trying to create a dispute in the
community. But it did not work and we settled the matter even before they entered the community.
Anil Pathankar and Narayan Rane got 7,000 votes while we got 10,000 in the local elections.’

91
Fulanchiwadi has already been introduced in chapter 5 along with the map. In this section the focus is on the development
network set up during the land liberalization period.
92
See chapter 5, footnote number 14 for more information on Narayan Rane.
93
Interview conducted by the researcher, November 2007.

155
Another silent competitor to the builder is a housing co-operative of the residents themselves. One of
the Congress leaders living in the village has organized 500-odd households to undertake the
redevelopment by themselves, instead of through the builder. Their capacity to carry out the project is
doubtful and it is more likely that this is yet another ruse to extract more ‘freebies’ from the builder.
As the promoter of this co-operative agrees, the ‘builders will win, they are more powerful. Only those
who (occupiers) have the power will get rooms.’ 94

Latif Villa Compound

The third case study concerns the Latif villa compound, situated in the G North Ward of the Island
City. With the acquisition of the Latif compound land, one would assume that the status of the builder
who bought the land or the CA was reduced to just one other occupier; however this is not the case.
The CA used his occupier status to form a tenant’s housing co-operative society, which has already
submitted an application to the municipal corporation for redevelopment of the Latif compound with
NPIs, in collaboration with a private developer. The CA is also the promoter of the housing co-
operative and leads the redevelopment from behind the scenes. The CA shares his view of the status of
the tenants, ’Yes, they were tenants earlier as this is a rented property, but now we have formed a
housing co-operative and submitted it with the help of builder Om Shanti Developers. I became the
chief promoter of the housing co-operative and my son became a partner with the developer’.95

Figure 8.9: Development Plan map of Latif Villa Compound

Latif Villa Compound with

Recreation Garden (RG)

Existing bungalow
structure housing tenants

Source: MCGB (1992).

The CA proudly admits to selecting the particular builder because of his belonging to the same
political party. According to the CA, the builder’s credentials were impeccable. He was trustworthy,

94
Interview conducted by researcher, July 2007.
95
Iinterview conducted by researcher, April 2007.

156
had no underworld links and was known for completing projects on time. Moreover, being an ex-bank
employee also added to his clean image.

Another hidden move by the CA is to appoint his son as the developer’s partner in the Latif
Compound project. Thus the CA moved from the position of landowner to that of an occupier, a
promoter of the housing co-operative and a co-developer of the project in partnership with another
developer. The CA acts as gatekeeper to the development of the compound and without his co-
operation no builder is likely to succeed. In his own words, ‘if a builder comes by himself to the
tenants they will not accept him as they do not know him but they know me.’ The relationship of trust
the CA has developed with his former tenants also continues in the NPIs era. As a result, the CA is
able to exercise the same authority as during the period of traditional planning instruments. Land
regulation policies in themselves are not sufficiently strong to change the patron-client relationships
between landowners and tenants during the development stage.

The following section will now turn to some of the general patterns of changes in the actions of
different actors from the cases presented above and their impact on local communities.

8.6 THE CHANGING ROLE OF ACTORS IN PRODUCING AMENITIES

This section will cover the changed role of the different involved actors: land occupiers, landowners,
beneficiaries as well as councillors and local and state governments.

The changed role of occupiers

Perhaps the biggest change is in the role of the residents and their organizations (e.g., chawl
committees and housing co-operatives). Looking at slums, NPIs have not only transformed the hut
owner/squatter from a tolerated encroacher to someone who enjoys rights in the redevelopment
project, they have further enhanced their position to someone whose consent is an essential
prerequisite for the clearance required before the redevelopment project can commence. It has also
made the hut owners co-creators of the redevelopment project as member of the housing co-operative,
recognizing the hut owner’s rights as a negotiator within the new development control rules.

When the secretary of the Roma Banjara Tanda was asked why slums were constructed on their land,
he replied, ‘As secretary, I am working towards demolishing these huts and we are in dialogue with
the Sangathna of the slum dwellers of Rahul Nagar. Their huts have been demolished a number of
times; they reconstruct them; currently there are about 150 huts. We even tried to accommodate them
in some other project but we were not successful. The slum controller showed us a place for Rahul
Nagar, and he was even willing to protect them but they refused to stay there 96.’

Landowners as co-producers of public amenities

From the analysis of the TDR and slum redevelopment data, it appears that the largest beneficiaries of
open space TDR can be found in the private sector. 97 A further breakdown within this category
indicates the main parties interested in TDR: small and medium landowners (i.e. builders turned
landowners or CAs) (31%), developers (24%), and small- and medium-size landowners (27%). Only a
few large landowners showed interest in the higher incentives and fungible instruments offered by the
government in the form of NPIs for surrendering their lands for open spaces.

Data indicates that builders and CAs (builder/landowners) are the primary builders of public amenities
under the new planning instruments. Ownership and access to land is a starting point and can be seen
as an advantage that builders and CA have over other actors. However, as the data shows these actors

96
Interview conducted by researcher on 28th June 2008.
97
The analysis is based on data from the MCGM database on TDR (2005).

157
were landholders even during the earlier regime. What has moved them to bring their landholdings
into the market is the type and real estate value of incentives offered by NPIs (table 8.18).

It can be concluded that higher participation of the private sector in construction of public amenities is
driven by higher profits, fungible and tradable under a regime which utilizes market instruments to
realize developmental goals.

Industrial landowners are another potential land provider for public amenities, having been awarded
TDRs in 148 projects. Except for four industrial landowners, the majority have preferred to develop
their lands as amusement grounds and gardens, i.e. open space amenities (table 8.18). New actors that
are seeking NPIs allocation for creating open space amenities include such landowning industrial units
as Polychem, Bafna, Godrej and Indian Cork Mills. With more and diverse actors entering the land
market, the number of stakeholders in the TDR market increased (Adarkar 2008).

Table 8.17: TDR beneficiaries of open space amenities

Beneficiaries TDR for open space amenities

TDR Received by Number of entities Percent
Medium and small landowners (buyers or CA),
71 31.3
10 acres and more
Small and medium landowners—original owners
60 26.4
(prior to the passing of the ULCRA in 1976)
Developer (interested in developing the land and
54 23.8
realizing its commercial value)
Large landowner 17 7.5
Industrial landowner 16 7.0
Housing co-operative 9 4.0
Total 227 100.0

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

Table 8.18: Beneficiaries of SRA/PAP TDR

Developer Projects Percent

Builder 540 87.8
Government 27 4.4
NGO-builder 23 3.7
Others 25 4.1
Total 615 100.0

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

NGOs and CBOs—for example, the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centre (SPARC) and
Nivara Haq Suraksha Samiti (NHSS)—are emerging as new actors on the slum redevelopment (SRA)
scene. SPARC has floated a company called M/S Sparc Samudhay Nirman Sahayyak (SSNS),
translated as SPARC Community Construction Support. This construction company was set up by
SPARC along with Mahila Milan, a CBO promoted by them. The municipal database on TDR
(MCGM 2005) identifies only one SPARC redevelopment project using the TDR instrument, in
Goregaon in the western suburbs. However, Levy (2007) has identified four other SRA projects (Rajiv
Indira Nagar, Bharat Janata, Miland Nagar and Jolly board) where TDR have been offered to SPARC
(see table 8.19). Another NGO appearing in the SRA list of TDR beneficiaries is NHSS, which has
been engaged in the resettlement of the dwellers on forest land in partnership with the entrepreneur
Sumeer Construction. Two CBOs appear in the list of TDR receivers in lieu of carrying out slum
redevelopment projects/construction of public housing: Roma Banjara Housing Co-operative Society

158
and Indira Nagar Housing Co-operative in Wadala. Stand-alone CBO projects are fewer in comparison
to project jointly undertaken by NGOs and developers.

All the new actors are marginal TDR holders and relatively smaller players, except for the partnership
between NHSS and Sumeeer Constructions which is the only such partnership between NGOs and
private sector. Participation of NGOs and CBOs as independent entities in the TDR market is unusual.
Elsewhere a larger number of CBOs—known as Rehwasi Sangathana (Residents Organizations) and
now renamed as housing co-operatives—are known to participate in the slum redevelopment
programmes, where it is mandatory for the builder to undertake the development in co-operation with
the CBO. It is estimated that 337 such redevelopment projects are currently on-going in Mumbai. 98
Our findings suggest that for-profit private sector players have in recent times been engaged in the
creation of public amenities in an environment where they themselves draw up the rules of the game.
Further, the numbers of CBO/NGO-led projects are not large enough to change these rules and they
remain on the margins of this sector.

Table 8.19: TDR beneficiaries for open space and SRA/PAP housing amenities

Actors Projects Percent Amenities developed

Builder 619 58.6 Grounds/SRA
Landowners 148 14.0 SRA
CA 95 9.0 Open space
Industry 52 4.9 Amusement parks
NGOs-CBOs 39 3.7 SRA
Government 21 2.0 SRA
Large landowners 17 1.6 Grounds and gardens
Others 66 6.2
Total 1,057 100.0

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

Building entrepreneurs, who were also landowners in the era prior to 1980s, were galvanized into
delivering public amenities by NPI instruments that offered them larger profits than earlier
instruments. Potential profits were sufficient to construct the public amenity and also accommodate
many claimants (implied in the layers of tenure). Thus NPIs have the potential to overcome problems
of tenure. Also, entrepreneurs found the NPI payback more attractive than the other instruments
because NPIs provide compensation in the form of assets, which are fungible, transferable and
marketable (table 8.20). For these entrepreneurs, the shortcomings of the NPIs were that for the first
time they had to negotiate directly with the occupiers/residents in informal settlements. These
settlements could at times run into hundreds of households, each with their own needs and interests,
further fragmented along jati, political affiliation and individual interests. In the next section, the
redevelopment networks amongst different actors within a project are presented, which demonstrate
the shifts from government to governance.

Consent of the landowner in a slum community is not sufficient to initiate a redevelopment process
because, unlike the tenancy structure in a slum, the landowner has no control over the occupiers. In all
three case studies, the building entrepreneur has to engage in a certain negotiation process with the
occupiers. The goal of this negotiation process is to elicit participation of the occupiers in the
redevelopment of their community via a NPI project. In the case of Roma Banjara, the professional
architect played the role of negotiator, while in the case of the Fulanchiwadi and Latif Compound, the
negotiation was undertaken by the builder himself.

98
Information obtained from the SRA website, http://www.sra.gov.in (accessed 12 June 2011).

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The changed role of Councillors and political leaders at the micro level

What happens when the builders themselves have no direct relationship with residents of the the
settlement and no earlier experience of dealing with a large number of households? The Shiv Sena
leader of the party branch of election ward 147 (which includes Fulanchiwadi) describes the process,
‘One builder, known as Sterling Builders from Malad, approached the landowner; once he [the
landowner] agreed to the development, he then came to us [Shiv Sena Shakha]. We agreed after
having meetings with our group leaders (of the Shiv Sena) 99.’ In such a scenario, when there is no
professional acting as intermediary (e.g., the architect in the Roma Banjara case), builders gained
access to the slums through the local councillors and political agents.

However, working through one party can have negative consequences in obtaining consent from
households organized under a different political party. In such scenarios, the builder seeks other means
to gather consent from the occupiers. ‘The local councillor often holds meetings with the builder in the
community, in these meetings the builder announces that he has already got consent of 70% of the
residents and the project will start soon,’ says an occupier 100. However, not all of the voters support
Shiv Sena; most notably in 2006 one of the senior leaders of Shiv Sena—the right hand man of the
Shiv Sena leader—joined the Congress party and caused a split amongst the voters. Each political
party supports its own builder; as a result, the residents are divided between a Congress-promoted
builder and the one supported by Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena builder has practically won the election
along with the Shiv Sena councillor, but, in order to obtain majority support of the occupiers, even
with strong political backing the builder has to negotiate with almost all of the smaller politically
affiliated groups of occupiers.

The same story was repeated by a number of local leaders living in Fulanchiwadi. A Congress leader
of the Fulanchiwadi area shares, ’These builders come and break groups by purchasing the local
leaders. Committee members are co-opted by the councillor. For the committee members this is a
business, and the people (the occupiers) accept what the society members say. ...Sterling offered me
Rs.10 lakhs to get signatures from the 100 households I have organized. He called me for a meeting
and he said, “I am the builder.” I said I would like to make my own co-operative and undertake the
development ourselves.’ 101 In Fulanchiwadi it appears that the political party of the councillor decided
which builder should work in which slum area. Furthermore, builders are known to fund election
campaigns of councillors, easily costing several hundred thousand rupees.

From the case studies and interviews with local leaders it appears that urban politicians use their
access and influence to seek approval from slum residents for their preferred builder. Private
developers—not government projects—provide the lion’s share of the ‘political income’. These
exchanges of financial means for political power and related access to decision-making processes are
not limited to payments by contractors. The political income that political parties are able to gather
also includes income from slum residents and private builders engaged in slum redevelopment. As all
private projects also need government approval, councillors play the role of intermediary between
officials and builders, and in other cases between the builder and the local brokers. Some councillors
also invest with small and medium builders, so that politicians also reappear as financiers and partners
of builders (cf. Nainan 2008).

All the councillors interviewed admitted that those of them who knew how the system functioned and
were able to confront the administrative officers reaped good political income. Knowledge of the rules
and policies related to housing and slum development—along with muscle power—were considered
necessary skills for a councillor to succeed in using their office to raise funds. Having multiple sources
of revenue for political party leaders is not a new practice; it is well entrenched in the democratic
system of the country, and one sees continuity in the role that local leaders play vis-à-vis projects and

99
Interview conducted by author, May 2008
100
Interview conducted by author, July 2007.
101
Interview conducted by author, July 2007.

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local governments. The difference is the quantum and scale of the projects, and the entry of private
competing actors engaged in the redevelopment of these slum communities.

Clearly the implementation process of NPIs has shifted from the earlier form of hierarchical
relationships between landowner and government to new networked relationships that go beyond the
traditional actors and include many more (openly or behind the scenes). This has changed the structure
of relationships between actors, resulting in the restructuring of governance patterns.

The changing role of state government

Table 8.20 above shows that government is also one of the actors that have reaped benefits from the
use of NPIs. Even though the figure of 2% is small, it is indicative of the possibilities that exist if
public lands are developed using NPIs. Until now, government was only viewed as a provider and has
for the first time openly emerged as a market stakeholder through its Slum Redevelopment Authority
(SRA).

Another role of state government is that of regulator of the TDR and FSI markets, although this is not
official. For example, in March 2008 the state government of Maharashtra offered new additional FSI
mechanisms to housing co-operative redevelopment projects in the suburbs of Mumbai. Their claim
was that the increased FSI will benefit middle class housing as old housing co-operatives could use the
additional FSI to expand their single bedroom flats. The government chose to use FSI to boost the
stagnant redevelopment in the western suburbs as well as an effort to curb the dependency of
redevelopers on FSI from a single source. By acting as FSI supplier, the government aimed to break
the monopoly of the slum TDR cartel. This action of the government has also hoodwinked the legal
debate and stalemate on permitting slum TDR in the corridor as the new FSI is only being offered to
housing co-operatives.

Further, changes in the development control rules, instituted around the turn of the century, introduced
some direct fees payable to the state government from development initiatives (e.g., the Dharavi
redevelopment project). Thus for the first time the state government will openly receive development
fees from private development of urban areas. Both these roles—market stakeholder of a fungible
instrument and regulator—are new for the state government, which until recently only played an
enabler role with the SRA.

8.7 PROJECT IMPACT ON COMMUNITIES

This section will look more directly at the impacts NPIs had on local slum communities, focusing on
clientelist practices and disputes.

Increasing clientelist practices in squatter communities

Under the LAA, the government was responsible for identifying occupiers of land and relocating
them. With the emergence of market instruments, the task of identifying the occupiers officially
remains with the landowning authority, which in this case is the private landowner/builder. This cost
includes undertaking a socio-economic survey, collecting proofs of residence and declaring the
eligibility of occupiers based on criteria of cut-off dates set by the state government. The identification
process is a lengthy process and can take up to six months for a community with about 500
households.

The cost of producing proofs for residents is fraught with clientelist practices and can be a costly
process for a household engaged in the informal economy. Clientelist practices are known to exist in
squatter communities. Desai (1999), in her study of squatter communities of Mumbai, identified that a
majority of squatter households depend on patron client relationships for public amenities. Without
proof of occupancy, the squatters’ claims to NPI related housing can be void. With the advent of NPI,
the market for proofs has grown, such that an entire industry of ‘proof makers’ has become an integral

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part of any redevelopment project. These costs are often borne by the occupiers themselves; thus, the
identification cost is actually shared by the government and the occupiers. 102

Another aspect of In-situ projects concerns eliciting consent or participation of the occupiers—what I
have called the ‘mobilization cost’. As per the development control rules, 70% of the occupiers must
give their consent to the redevelopment process as a precondition for approval. However, entry into
the occupiers’ settlements requires permissions of gatekeepers, such as councillors, political parties
and occupiers’ organizations. In the Fulanchiwadi case, soliciting the gatekeepers was not sufficient as
some individual occupiers claimed larger returns as they had larger land areas than other occupiers.
This negotiation for more space, better amenities, timely delivery, higher rent for transit
accommodations are part of all redevelopment projects.

The cost of settling these demands and ensuring participation of at least 70% falls on the entrepreneur.
Councillors, political party branches (Shiv Sena Shakha in the case of Fulanchiwadi) and local ward
officers play the role of informal arbitrator and these costs are often not taken into account. Describing
the political drama and disputes in the community caused by the competition amongst builders, the
Secretary of the CBO-Mukti Nagar Rehwasi Sangatana [Residents Organization of Mukti Nagar]
shared:
The process of builders and SRA started two years back just near the corporation elections.
SRA was used by both the Congress and Shiv Sena to mobilize votes for the councillor
elections—for Prachar [canvassing]. As usual, they influenced the chawl committees. So
many chawl committees split and they went to Kukreja too, only to earn money. The leaders
became rich and some of them even moved out of the basti renting out these rooms 103. ...All
together we were some 460 houses in Mukti Nagar, we have a list of all the houses, all the
chawl committees were also members of our organization. After the entry of the builders, they
told the residents that they would give houses to all those who have ration cards, this way the
number of houses increased. One hut overnight had three doors, the brothers split the house
amongst themselves, fights broke out amongst families and today there are some 1,200 houses
in the same area where 460 stood before the elections.

Projects as sites of disputes

The benefits of the NPIs drew a number of builders to informal settlements with plans to undertake
redevelopment. In the past five years three builders have approached local leaders in Mukti Nagar with
their agreement letters. Kumud Thankur, a local leader, showed me one such agreement 104: ‘At times
we don’t even know who the builder is, as no name is given on the agreement.’ Explaining further he
says that agents gather agreements from occupiers and then sell them to any interested builder. The
builder shows interest only when there are a sizeable number of agreements signed by occupiers. So at
any given time, there may be two or more agents who approach families with incomplete information
and pressure them to sign their agreements. When households refuse to become party to the
redevelopment, violence is also employed against these families. In most cases, a number of police
complaints is made by households or group of households against the builders’ agents.

Pubic interest litigation (PIL) and right to information (RTI) processes are tools often used to exercise
influence by the occupiers on private builders and the non-responsive state machinery. PIL call for the
judiciary to intervene on issues of urban development and RTI calls for sharing documents,
information and decisions made on the redevelopment process. Both these processes have costs
attached to them—often borne by the protest group, occupiers or potential user of the amenity. While
on one hand there have been efforts by the state to introduce instruments to encourage transparency on
the other hand the functioning of judiciary is perceived by activists as anti-poor people. They see a
shift in the attitude of courts towards activists who draw attention to irregularities of urban

102
In large infrastructure projects this task of identification of eligible occupiers has been undertaken by NGOs.
103
Interview date 30.09.2008
104
Interview conducted on 14th May 2008

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development. The courts have over the years come to favour private sector led urban development.
Shack dwellers and housing rights movements no longer see courts as spaces where justice can be
pursued.

8.8 CONCLUSIONS

When the engineer/builder nexus of the MCGB experimented with TDR policy in the early 1970s, it
was declared an irregularity. However, it found its way back into the revised Development Plan as a
recommendation, which was much debated and eventually accepted as a means to compensate
landowners for acquiring their lands for public use. Similarly, the Accommodation Reservation
emerged as an irregularity as sections of land plots reserved for public amenities were de-reserved by
the planning committee. This irregularity or violation of rules was later on accepted as a policy
recommendation and turned into a formal rule as part of the development control rules governing the
city of Bombay.

This implies that several major land policy innovations have taken shape in the shadows of the
planning organization in the MCGB. First, shadow experiments—actually violations and
irregularities—were carried out and later were legally sanctioned. By turning shadow practices into
formal rules, the institution also accepted ‘shadow’ citizens (slum dwellers/land occupiers) as direct
partners and beneficiaries of the Development Plan and the development control rules. The content of
the policy (means of compensation) was designed to overcome problems posed by earlier policies;
however, the new policy does exhibit some continuity vis-à-vis earlier policies. The basic idea of
compensation to landowners/holders is maintained, although the means of compensation is changed.

With the sanctioning of the revised Development Plan and the development control rules of 1991, a
new era of liberal land policies came into existence in Bombay. The New Planning Instruments
include Transfer of Development Rights, Accommodation Reservation and In-situ Development,
along with Additional Floor Space Ratio and higher FSI. These rules recognize and engage more
directly with new actors such as builders and landholders and land occupiers. Whether TDR, AR and
In-situ development are able to fulfil the interests of all the involved actors—the private entrepreneur,
the civil society and the land occupiers—will be examined in the next two chapters.

Definitely more plots were acquired more quickly by using NPIs (by state and local government),
when compared to those realized by the traditional planning instruments. However, in terms of
delivery of public amenities (i.e. transforming land into usable amenities), the performance of both the
traditional instrument (LAA) and NPI (TDR) is similar: 51% of land plots acquired under LAA are
fully developed as public amenities while this percent is 53% in the case of TDR. The difference is in
the type of public amenities created; in the case of LAA there is a large variety, under the NPI (TDR)
they are primarily housing and rehabilitation or resettlement projects. Thus, the problem is not only
with the acquisition of land, but also with the actual construction and maintenance of public amenities
once the land has been acquired. Further, data also shows that AR and TDR are better performing
instruments in terms of acquisition of plots, and AR is the best performing instrument in terms of both
acquisition and delivery of public amenities.

One of the outcomes of TDR is that there is a spatial preference for certain types of amenities to be
developed in specific areas according to land prices. An analysis of the data shows that the majority of
the SRA constructed using the TDR instrument was concentrated in a ward with very low land prices.
Further, this ward had already been identified as a ward with one of the largest number of people
living in squatter settlements as well as being distinguished by high levels of deprivation, with a
majority of the squatter population of this ward coming from a Dalit community background. Thus,
TDR pushes the poor and project-displaced people (pavement dwellers, railroad dwellers etc.) into one
pre-selected low-priced location in the city, a process that perpetuates the class- and caste-based
geographical segregation of the city.

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While on the one hand, outputs such as having more available housing for Project Affected Persons
can be seen as a positive externality, a negative externality is the high-density upper class housing in
the western coastal suburbs of the city, which spurred growing protests by middle class persons, who
view this building boom as aggressively reshaping their neighbourhood.

Although the public amenities appear to have been delivered by the private sector through NPI at no
direct cash cost to the government, exchange of land rights are known to have some indirect or hidden
transaction costs. Among the hidden costs recorded during the process of this study are costs for
clearing private lands paid by slum dwellers and local government, indirect costs of land acquisition
(paid by high-income dwellers), costs of accommodating occupiers (paid by middle and upper class
house buyers—generally young families and new migrants to the city).Evidence presented in the
sections above challenges the quantitative outputs of NPI, as not only is every project area bursting
with clientelist practices and a site of dispute—the location of these amenities and related
displacement of poor citizens to low land price areas of the city has reinforced to—which escalates
into further fragmenting the city along class lines reinstating Mumbai unjust geography.

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CHAPTER 9: IMPACT OF NPIS ON RESETTLED AND REDEVELOPED COMMUNITIES

INTRODUCTION

One of the limitations of the Traditional Planning Instruments (TDIs) was that they did not create
possibilities to accommodate both the occupants of the land (slum or chawl) and simultaneously
constructed public amenities on the same plot of land. The New Planning Instruments (NPIs) provided
this possibility. Theoretically this meant that the NPIs (e.g., TDR and In-situ Redevelopment) could
ensure that the occupants of the land were resettled on site with In-situ, or relocated and resettled off-
site using the TDR instrument. These new instruments applied to 50% of the entire population living
in squatter settlements.

While In-situ redevelopment created the opportunity for the occupants to be re-housed on the same
plot of land, TDR offered landowners the assurance that occupants of lands that could not be shared
(e.g., pavements and railroads) were resettled elsewhere. The earlier chapters showed that most of the
housing created using the TDR instrument is clustered in low-priced areas. They also showed that the
implementation process of these NPIs is a move towards networked governance, involving many
formal and informal actors.

In this chapter, the impact of the TDR and the In-situ planning instruments on the households of the
squatter settlements is presented. The impact of TDR on low income households is studied in a
MUTP cluster and In-situ development in a cluster of households called Roma Banjara. The source of
the data is a combination of a household survey and focus group discussions conducted in two of the
case study areas.Two hundred households were interviewed from the Roma Banjara cluster and four
hundred and twenty from the MUTP cluster.

The Elphinstone community is a subset of households relocated to a new location, as part of the
Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), undertaken by the Government of Maharashtra. This
project has been implemented with financial assistance from the World Bank. One of the sources of
revenue for the project was the required state government contribution, provided via the TDR
instrument. The TDR instrument was used for the resettlement and rehabilitation (RR) of Project
Affected Persons (PAPs) living in unsafe conditions within a distance of ten meters off the railway
tracks. The project was expected to displace about 19,228 households (TISS 2003). The relocation
sites were spread over a number of townships with three types of settlements: high-rise buildings,
legal transit camps and illegal transit camps.

Section 9.1 discusses this splintering of the original community, which took place as a result of the
project. In section 9.2, the impact of the redevelopment on households of the MUTP cluster is
presented. In section 9.3 the impact on households of In-situ project of Roma Banjara is presented. In
Section 9.4 the impact on the livelihoods of households is presented and in section 9.5 a comparison
between the sub-communities of the two habitat clusters is presented. Section 9.6 presents the
conclusions.

9.1 SPATIAL IMPACT OF MARKET INSTUMENTS ON COMMUNITIES

One of the key findings from the previous chapter on location preference of TDR was that housing
amenities constructed an outcome of NPI, appear to be clustered in locations where land prices are
lower than elsewhere. As a result, much of the housing for PAPs (slum, pavement and railroad
dwellers) under the Mumbai Urban Transport project is concentrated in M Ward. Similarly, another
relocation sites which uses a combination of market instrument and is located in M Ward is that of the
Roma Banjaras. These type of relocation sites are studied for the impact that use of market instruments
have on the community.

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Mumbai Urban Transport Project

The Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) has resulted in displacing households from different
parts of the city. A large section of those displaced by the project have been resettled in high-rise PAP
townships, predominantly in M Ward. In M Ward itself, a total of six townships have come up with
22,316 housing units of 225 square feet each (see table 9.1).

Table 9.1: PAP townships in M Ward

Number TDR
Percent
of generated
Village PAP township Population of total Earlier land use
housing in square
TDR
unit metres
Gadkari Khan Industrial/
1 Anik 11,884 59,420 1,162,887 54
and Vashi Naka agricultural
2 Maravli Panjrapole 0 0 309,112 14 Open
New Gautam
3 Borla 3,000 15,000 143,520 7 Container yard
Nagar 1 and 2
Lallu Bhai
4 Mankhurd 1,900 9,500 512,850 24 Glass factory
compound
Lallu Bhai
5 Deonar 1,900 9,500 23,585 1 Glass factory
compound
Maharashtra
6 Mandala 3,632 18,160 19,325 1 Creek
Nagar
Total 22,316 111,580 2,171,279 100

Source: MCGM TDR database (2005).

The quick pace of ‘resettlement and rehabilitation’ is credited to the Bombay High Court’s order in
response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by commuters demanding the removal of squatters,
which were allegedly slowing down train operations on the Harbour Line. 105 The state government
took on the task to remove about 10,000 slum households living within the safety zone (10 meters on
both sides of the tracks) and resettle them in permanent buildings and transit camps. Between April
2000 and June 2002, 3,935 households and 145 persons who owned commercial structures were
resettled (Burra 2005). Tracing the history of Mumbai Urban Transport Project and what gave it the
impetus, Shekhar of the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF) recalls: 106
In 2000, some middle class train travellers filed a court petition asking government to remove
encroachments along the railway tracks and make travelling faster and safer. The railways
refused to rehabilitate the slums and asked the state government to undertake the resettlement.
Meanwhile the World Bank had been discussing with the central government to fund the
improvements of the railway under the MUTP. Society for the Promotion of Area Resource
Centres too had been pressuring the World Bank to rehabilitate railway land dwellers. On 28
February 2000, the Railways started demolishing the slums on their lands. Some 3,000 houses
were demolished, some were given [housing in] buildings that were already ready [such as the
Lallu Bhai compound]. SPARC was given a plot of land for building temporary shelter for
those who could not be accommodated in the buildings. Nine hundred houses were built in
Kanjur Marg and two settlements here in Mankhurd, 1,500 on one plot and 3,600 huts on
another.

Rehabilitation of MUTP affected household is officially a two-stage process; some households are to
be moved into buildings already constructed by private builders using the TDR instrument, while

105
Railway lines in Mumbai are divided into the Western Railway, connecting the western suburbs from Churchgate to
Dahisar/Vasai-Virar; the Central Railway’s Main Line, connecting CST to Mulund/Thane/Kalyan; and Harbour Line,
connecting CST to Mankhurd/Panvel.
106
Gunna Shekhar Mulayan of the NSDF, interviewed by author on 28 June 2008. The National Slum Dwellers Federation
(NSDF) is a people’s organization in alliance with an NGO SPARC and a women’s organization called Mahila Milan.

166
another set of households are to be accommodated in 100 square feet single story units known as
transit camps. The manner of decision making on PAPs’ entitlements for resettlement has been a
crucial aspect of the resettlement process, with ‘proof of stay’ and ‘community verification’ chosen as
the main criteria (TISS 2008).

The project-implementing agency (MMRDA) chose to engage voluntary organizations to implement

the resettlement process. SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation (NSDF), the Railway Slum
Dwellers Federation (RSDF) and local community-based organizations all had a role to play in the
resettlement process. This included preparing a ‘baseline survey’, deciding entitlements, mobilizing
basic services, forming housing societies to take over operation and maintenance of community
services, preparing a community environment management plan and even constructing the dwelling
units in the transit camp (TISS 2003).

The rehabilitation buildings usually have seven stories, with housing units of 225 square feet each, and
are erected in clusters forming large PAP townships. Rehabilitation housing has been presented as the
‘complete solution’ to all of Mumbai’s infrastructure problems, simultaneously providing permanent
and complete housing for slum dwellers as well as bringing an end to slum demolitions. However,
fieldwork indicated that over and above the two official types of housing created by the agencies
undertaking redevelopment (SPARC, NSDF, private developers and the MMRDA), a third type of
housing settlements appeared near the official rehabilitation settlements. These are unrecognized
settlements, often forming at the foot of one or the other redevelopment buildings. Maharashtra Nagar-
Pattra Chawl is one such settlement of households that did not find their way into the transit camps or
rehabilitation buildings of the MUTP project.

Depending on the eligibility of the households, they are either relocated directly into a PAP township
or put up in a transit camp. The Elphinstone community is one such resettled pavement community.
The ‘Elphinstone community’ (as they liked to call themselves) used to reside in central Mumbai
before they were displaced by the MUTP road-widening project and were resettled as PAPs in the
township of Lallu Bhai compound (see figure 9.1). Another kind of settlement also exists along with
the high rise of PAP Townships, known as transit camps. A smaller number of PAPs were housed in
low-rise transit camps (known as 138 A and 138 B), which border the PAP township Lallu Bhai
compound. The transit camps housed approximately 300 and 170 MUTP PAP households respectively
(see figure 9.2).

Across the transit camp, right under the high-rise PAP buildings, there is yet another squatter
settlement Maharashtra Nagar. Also well-known as an illegal transit camp, it looks like a low-rise
pavement settlement with houses made from gunny bags. The settlement is home to approximately
120 households (the number of households fluctuates depending on the season). The researcher was
informed by residents of this settlement that some PAP households have been scattered within M
Ward, some live in rented houses in slum areas, while others are in temporary shelters close to existing
transit camps (see figure 9.3). Thus it appears that the rehabilitation and resettlement process
fragments the original community into segregated living places. While some of the households find
their way into high rise housing as shown in figure 9.1, others are to be found residing in recognized
transit camps and still others on new pavement communities such as Maharasthra Nagar as shown in
figure 9.3. A similar fragmentation of the community is also observed in the case of the Roma
Banjara Resettlement.

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Figure 9.1: Lallu Bhai Compound

Figure 9.2: Transit Camps

168
Figure 9.3: Maharashtra Nagar

Roma Banjara

For the past fifteen years Roma Banjara is being implemented as a redevelopment project on sections
of the plot. Currently, one rehabilitation building and one for sale building are being constructed,
while residents continue to live on the same plot of land. The landscape of Roma Banjara is one of
closely clustered high-rise buildings, with one slum immediately next to it and another one close
by—Rahul Nagar. A large playground runs parallel to Rahul Nagar, sandwiched between the
community and the Mumbai-Panvel Road (see figure 9.5 for map of community).

Figure 9.4: Women at the entrance of a Roma Banjara Tandav Housing Co-operative Building

169
Figure 9.5: Development Plan map of Roma Banjara community

Rehabilitation buildings

Transit camp

For sale buildings

Rahul Nagar slum

Playground

Source: MCGM (1991).

The plot is segmented visually between three types of different housing. One is a cluster of seven
high-rise buildings (each with eight floors and 64 units), which house rehabilitated households, often
referred to by the residents as the Roma Banjara Tanda Housing Co-operative (see figure 9.4).

Figure 9.6: A Balwadi run by a NGO in Roma Banjara Cluster

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The second type of large squatter-like settlement lies at the foot of the high-rise buildings. These low-
rise transit accommodations are for households yet to be accommodated in high-rise housing. These
households have been living here for over 15 years now. It is difficult to count the total number of
huts, as often one hut opens to two doors on different sides of the hut. Following a door count, the
investigators identified seventy-seven households living in the transit camp. According to Shankar
Jadav, secretary of the Roma Banjara Housing Co-operative, the transit camps house 67 households
that are currently not eligible for housing in the redevelopment project. The third type of house is
located under the high-tension electric wires that run through the plot of Rahul Nagar, a slum
community of those families excluded from the Roma Banjara Housing Co-operative. Shankar Jadav
recollects the transition period:, ‘In 1993, when we shifted here, many more families were moved in
with us from Chikoowadi [their village-like community in BARC], even though they were not allotted
spaces. Some of the people in Rahul Nagar are extended families of those from Roma Banjara [e.g.,
two brothers fought and one moved out]; some are tenants who were not members of the housing co-
operative [those that belong to Chikoowadi]. Currently there are about 150 huts in Rahul Nagar.

The original community that started out as Chikoowadi, has splintered into three sub-communities
which have different levels of amenities and housing conditions. In the next section, the survey
findings for each of the splintered communities will be presented.

9.2 IMPACTS ON RESETTLED HOUSEHOLDS OF THE MUTP CLUSTER

In this section, I will present the poverty profile and the changed housing conditions of the three sub-
communities of PAPs, analysing the data gathered through interviews and focus group discussions.

Poverty profiles of the three sub-communities of the MUTP project

The three communities show clear differences in their average levels of income. The highest number
of households earning less than Rs.3,000 per month was found in the informal settlement of
Maharashtra Nagar, while the lowest percent of low-income households was found in the
rehabilitation buildings.

Table 9.2: Monthly income of households in sub-communities of MUTP

100%
80%
Rs.5,001-10,000
60%
Percent of 40%
Rs.3,001-5.000
20%
0%
Rehabilitation Transit Maharashtra less than Rs.3,000
Buildings camp Nagar
Sub-communities

Households in India receive subsidies for basic foodstuffs and supplies through ration cards. The data
from these neighbourhoods shows that a substantial percent of the population does not have ration
cards, particularly in the informal settlement and the transit camp (35% in Maharashtra Nagar and
30% in transit camp), in contrast to those in the rehabilitation buildings (where only 2% of households
lack ration cards). As a result many households have to completely rely on the open market for food
grains. Table 9.3 also shows that almost one-third of residents of the Rehabilitation buildings are not
registered in the electoral rolls.

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Table 9.3: Percentage of households having proofs of residence in resettlement

Status of community/and Percent of households Percent of households with no

housing conditions with no ration card name in electoral rolls
Rehabilitation building at
2 33
Lallu Bhai compound
MUTP transit camp 30 41

Maharashtra Nagar slum 35 32

Two of the six PAP townships were ready but not occupied while PAP households continued to stay in
poorly serviced, dingy and low-rise transit camps in the neighbourhood. During discussions with
NGOs and community leaders, the researcher found out that only those households holding valid
proofs of identity were allocated housing in PAP townships, while the rest were moved to transit
camps where they had time and opportunity to put together documents that could be submitted as
proofs. According to Shekhar of NSDF, ‘The disputed cases are in the transit camps, there are also
people from Azad Maidan pavements [who do not have proofs]. Some people sold their huts and
transfer and sale…as a result, the households that bought their houses were not on the list of surveyed
people. 107’

The residents’ perspective on the issue was revealed during a focus group discussion held with a group
of women living in Maharashtra Nagar 108. One of the participants shared, ’We are members of Mahila
Milan 109 and save money with them, if I have proof that I am a member and you have my money then
is it not proof enough that I am a PAP? The SPARC survey was not complete, we have been left out. I
have proofs to show that I lived there. Every time there is a demolition I lost my documents. If you are
at home you can save some things from being taken away. Otherwise everything is picked up and
taken by the municipal trucks.’

It appears that very poor households that were not able to gather proofs of residence (in all probability
because they could not make informal payments for the documents) and were differentiated and
excluded as they were not given the same treatment as those who have proofs of residence. Such
polices which exclude households of similar socio-economic conditions from relocation rights are in
practice discriminatory. Continuing demolitions by authorities of the transit camps and the Pattra
Chawl resulted in loss of the scarce proofs that the households were able to gather, thus even further
reducing their chances of obtaining formal housing.

Housing conditions

Households living in the MUTP rehabilitation buildings appear to have better housing conditions than
before, both in terms of security of tenure as well as unit size and structure (larger units constructed
with cement and bricks). These households also have access to legal electricity and indoor toilets.
What is surprising is that 9% of the residents of the rehabilitation buildings are tenants, which means
that the original PAPs sublet these apartments to other households. Living in the MUTP rehabilitation
buildings incurs higher costs to the household, as they have to pay maintenance and taxes. Eighty-
three percent households in the rehabilitation building indicated that they paid between Rs.200-500
per month, for maintenance of the housing unit and the building. Some services (e.g. the electric lifts)
were completely shut down as the households could not afford to pay for the electricity. High
maintenance taxes and distance from workplaces are key reasons why some of the rehabilitated PAPs
chose to rent out their housing units.110

107
Interview conducted on 24th June 2008
108
Focused group conducted on 25th September 2006
109
A organization of self-help women’s group promoted and supported by SPARC
110
Focus group discussion held with the Elphinstone community on 8 June 2007.

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The story of Hemu from Rehabilitation Building 19A

I meet Hemu at the local grocery shop, where she came to buy wheat and jawar. Hemu is a Gujarati
and a widow of around 50 years of age, who works with the conservancy department of the MCGM.
She shared that she was unhappy living there and invited me to her house. We climb up the stairs, the
lift has never worked as on arrival they (the Elphinstone community) were presented with an
electricity bill of Rs.12,000. As no one could afford such high electricity bills, the residents decided
not to use the lift. On the way up to meet other PAP families, we meet another widow, Meena Bai,
who was on her way out with her daughter. She shared that she cannot find work as housekeeper—she
cannot travel to her earlier workplace and there are no rich neighbourhoods around this area. Also
Meena Bai has health problems: ‘I have been suffering from a kind of Jaundice and I find it difficult to
walk down the 4 floors. I just do not leave my home; my children earn [money] and take care of me.’

Table 9.4: Housing conditions of sub-communities of the MUTP Project (in percentage of
households)

paying Rs.200
Status of who have
with with with less with toilet as monthly
community Percent of faced
Kutcha illegal than 100 within the maintenance of
and housing tenants demolitions
house electricity square feet house house including
conditions
taxes
Rehabilitation
building at
9 0 0 0 100 83 8
Lallu Bhai
Compound
MUTP
Transit Camp 100 60 40 97 2.7 5 8
198 A
Maharashtra
10 100 50 100 0 0 95
Nagar Slum

Compared to the households living in the rehabilitation buildings, the situation of those living in the
transit camp is amenity deficient: 40% of households have no access to legal electricity and 97% of
them live in houses with less than 100 square feet, the majority (60%) constructed using temporary
materials. When the respondents living in the transit camp were asked to rate the benefit they received
from the redevelopment project, 71% felt they had not benefited from the project at all, 18% chose not
to answer the question. Almost half (42%) shared that the distance to their jobs increased and
consequently also travel expenses (table 9.4).

The situation in the Maharashtra Nagar chawls is even more precarious; households are under constant
threat of demolitions, and the entire settlement is constructed from temporary housing materials (jute,
bamboo and plastic sheets). Half of the households use illegally tapped electricity. The residents of
Maharashtra Nagar trace back their residence to either Tata Nagar or Mankhurd, where their shacks
had to be vacated to allow for road or railroad widening. They reasoned that their exclusion from
formal PAP housing was based on their tenant status as they were staying on the upper story of the hut
(while government norms only recognize ground floor residents as legal claimants of rehabilitation),
or that they did not have the required proof of identity. Some also claimed that they were accidentally
left out of the baseline survey. Forced to relocate, they were permitted by SPARC to build temporary
housing (Pattra Chawl),111 near the transit camps where they organized themselves as three housing
co-operative societies (Amardeep, Sai and Tirang). Approximately 270 households lived there for one
and half years, after which the transit camp as well as the Pattra chawl were demolished.

111
Pattra is corrugated iron used for making the shanties.

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While those living in the transit camps were moved to another transit camp or PAP township, the
residents of the Pattra chawl were driven out and left to fend for themselves. Recalling these
demolitions during the focus groups, a woman from Maharashtra Nagar shares her story: 112
We had three societies, Amardeep, Sai and Tirang, with 270 households divided between
them in the Pattra chawl, constructed next to the formal transit camp which housed 950
households. During the very heavy rains in 2005, Jockim (of NSDF) asked us to move into the
transit camps for three months after which they were demolished. [Today that land stands
cleared of all housing.] Two years back the transit camp was demolished, while the transit
camp residents were shifted to a nearby transit camp. We were asked to go and fend for
ourselves. Jockim said, ‘do what you want, rent a place or live here, we will get in touch with
you when we have a house for you; wait till Diwali.’

The households living in the slum of Maharashtra Nagar have been excluded from the project. The
possible reasons could be either because they are tenants, making two claims (both for a house and
shop that existed in the same structure), or families whose structures were partly affected, or those
who had been included in the base line survey but not affected (due to realignment of the railway
tracks).

The TISS study lists some possible reasons for exclusion of large numbers of households wanting to
prove claims for a formal pucca house (2008, 94): ’The baseline socio-economic surveys were
conducted at different periods—in some cases well in advance, while in the other at short notice.
These leave scope for minor errors in the names of the occupants giving the opportunity to some
occupants to manipulate the structure by partitioning it into a shop and a living portion (double claim)
involving even structures that did not fall within the re-alignment of roads or railways.’

If these households are not to be included in the project why is it that the households of Maharashtra
Nagar continue to believe that somehow they can convince SPARC and its network or rehabilitation
organizations to include them? An National Alliance of Peoples Movement activist provides a
potential answer to this question: ‘Sometimes if the household is persistent enough and keeps
pressuring the staff of SPARC then it’s quite likely that over a few years they may be included as a
beneficiary. I have seen this happen on humanitarian grounds as well as recognizing that in all
probability some households have accidentally been left out of the baseline survey. 113’

Access to public amenities

A large percent of the rehabilitation building residents felt that they were serviced by the local
government; 84% said they had access to Balwadis, 20% to welfare centres, 47% to medical centres,
82% to playgrounds and 47% to primary schools. However, new public amenities for education and
health facilities (including Public Distribution System) have not been extended to the growing number
of households. This has further burdened pre-existing feeble service networks, according to the Tata
Institute of Social Science (TISS) report on the resettlement and rehabilitation: ’the inadequacy of
community facilities is striking’ (2008: 54).

An analysis of data gathered from 778 households in Lallu Bhai compound by TISS compares their
current access to public amenities with conditions at their previous location. It shows that for both
education and health facilities households find that public amenities have worsened (see table 9.5).

112
Focus group discussion held on 25 September 2008.
113
Focused group discussion conducted by author : 28th September 2008

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Table 9.5: Comparison of schooling and health facilities between their earlier site and current site
(in percentages)

Is the school facility Is the health facility

Lallu Bhai compound Lallu Bhai compound
better now? better now?

Yes 23.8 Better 13.1

No 40.2 Similar 19.9

Uncertain 9.7 Worse 57.2

Not applicable 26.4 Much worse 9.8

Total 100 Total 100

Source: TISS study (2008).

According to the TISS study’s overall assessment of public amenities (including markets, open spaces,
religious places) (2008, 54): ‘The high level of dissatisfaction with respect to various public amenities
is very striking. The majority of respondents felt that in this respect, the resettlement sites are worse
than the original sites.’
The percent of households with access to public amenities in the other two locations (the transit camp
and Maharashtra Nagar slum) decreases when the status of the community drops from resettled to
transit and from transit to squatter (see table 9.6). A comparison between five public amenities across
the three types of housing shows that the slum communities are worst off, having worst access to
amenities (see table 9.6).

Table 9.6: Type of housing and access to public amenities (in percentages)

Access to public amenities

Type of housing
Welfare Primary Medical
Balwadi Playground
centre school centre
Rehabilitation
building at Lallu 84 20 82 47 47
Bhai compound
MUTP Transit
36 5 2.7 2 1
camp
Maharashtra Nagar
23 3 1 1 4
slum

MMRDA, the implementing organization, does not consider it necessary to provide all the facilities up
front to the PAP townships; it sees the growth of infrastructure as a gradual process. This perspective
justifies poor planning and contradicts the importance given to educational programmes (‘Education
for All’ and others) by central government policies. As a result, PAPs have to continually press the
MCGM for public utilities: new schools, police sub-stations or health sub-centres (TISS 2008).
Because of the institutional setup of the MUTP project, PAPs in transit camps depend on SPARC and
NSDF for all facilities, including water supply, sewage and electricity. Every household makes a
contribution of Rs.150 per month towards these services. Project-excluded PAP communities, such as
Maharashtra Nagar, are also dependent on SPARC and NSDF for they live in hope of being provided
with access to a home in the resettlement high-rise buildings of the redevelopment project.

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Voice

The three sub-communities have different rates of enrolment on voting lists (see table 9.3): households
living in the PAP high-rise buildings have 33% of residents not enrolled; Maharashtra Nagar has 32%;
and the highest percent is found in the transit camp (41%).

For non-voters local leaders are an important source of claim-making. Maharashtra Nagar and transit
camp residents referred to three different categories of leaders: the housing co-operative or community
leaders (they reside in the community); the NGO leaders (who live outside the community and are
easily accessible through their office situated in the transit camp itself); and a councillor from the
nearby election ward. The women of Maharashtra Nagar during the focus group discussions expressed
their frustration with their community leaders; it appears as if they have been cheated by their own
leaders. Initially there was only one society, but as the leaders fought amongst themselves they
transformed it into three societies. They said it was probably splintered in order to increase the number
of claimants. SPARC had offered transit accommodation (formal) to ten households from each of the
societies, and left it to the leaders to select which residents would be included. The leaders selected the
members, ‘by looking at their faces, no proofs were needed; all you need is a letter from the NGO
leader which says you have been surveyed. Our unity has been broken by these leaders; otherwise all
of us would have received homes.’

While on the one hand the excluded households depend on the NGO and CBO leadership for securing
entry into formal PAP townships, they also distrust them and blame them for their current insecure
housing situation. The demolitions of the transit camps and continuing demolitions of their homes by
local authorities together with SPARC add to this conflictual relationship. Open conflict with the NGO
is restrained due to the dependency of the households on the NGO; as a result their anger is
transformed into either helplessness or antagonism. So while the majority perceive themselves as
victims, others have taken on themselves to build relationships with other powerful actors. In the case
of Maharashtra Nagar slum, the residents have sought to strengthen their position by associating
themselves with a councillor from the Republic Party of India (Athavale Group). The councillor has
been providing protection to the slum households against demolitions, retaining common water taps
and supporting their legal battles for housing. A woman who participated in the focus group
discussion narrated with great admiration: ‘Our real leader is councillor Bansode; he is not from our
area but from Mankhurd. He is a good man and twice he came to protect our slum from being
demolished. He is so good that he has taken all the cases filed against us by the police against
himself.’ This means that councillor Bansode has voluntarily accepted the role of ‘prime accused’ in
cases filed by the police against the community for obstructing police activities.

9.3 IMPACTS ON HOUSEHOLDS OF THE IN-SITU REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT OF

ROMA BANJARA CLUSTER

The household survey shows the impact of the differential provision of facilities on the sub-
communities of the Roma Banjara In-situ project. The three groups of households (those who received
homes in the rehabilitation projects, those living in the transit camps and those excluded living in the
adjoining slum area) are described according to their incomes, tenure security, housing conditions,
voice (voting) and access to public amenities. In both transit and slum communities, about three-
quarters of the households earn less than Rs.5,000 per month. Among households living in the
rehabilitation buildings, one third (32%) earns between Rs.5,001-10,000 per month. This income
difference between households living in the rehabilitation buildings and those living in slum and
transit accommodation is also reflected in the ownership of motorized two-wheelers. Households
living in the rehabilitation buildings were twice as likely to own a two-wheeler than their counterparts
living in slum and transit camps (table 9.6.).

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Table 9.7: Percent of households living in different types of housing

Monthly household less than

income in INR 3000 3001-5000 5001-10,000 10,001 and above
Transit Camp 49.5 29.0 18 3.3
Maharashtra Nagar 64.8 26.2 7.6 1.4
Rehabilitation Building 41.6 24.8 28.7 5.0

Housing conditions of the sub-communities in the Roma Banjara cluster

Only the households from the rehabilitation buildings can claim to both own their house and enjoy
security of tenure (even though 20% of the respondents living in the rehabilitation buildings were at
the same time also tenants). In the slum area 49% of the respondents were tenants, and in the transit
camps this percent was very high—79%. The quality of housing in the slum areas and transit camps
was distinctly different from the rehabilitation buildings. Forty-nine percent of slum and 38% transit
camp houses were made of temporary materials (tin sheets, jute and plastic). Furthermore, each
household had significantly less space at its disposal than those living in rehabilitation buildings
(offering units of 180 or 225 square feet). More than half of the transit houses and 39% of the slum
houses had less than 100 square feet per house. In terms of amenities, the slum and transit camps
depended on illegal electricity (90% of the slum and 98% in the transit camp). Thirty-one percent of
households in the slum and 26% in the transit camp did not have ration cards and therefore were not
eligible to access the state’s public distribution system.

When asked whether the respondents living in the slum houses and transit houses were included in the
redevelopment project, 80% of those staying in the transit camp and 92% of those living in the slum
felt that they had been included in the redevelopment project. Thus even though they did not have
houses in the rehabilitation building, being relocated closer to the rehabilitation buildings was
perceived by them as some form of inclusion. Their continued persistence and unrelenting hope—in
contrast to the stark realities of their daily lives and their desperate living conditions—was puzzling to
the researcher. When asked whether they had benefited from the redevelopment project, 30% of the
transit households said they had not benefited, 12% felt that they had received a good house and 2% of
the transit households said that they had paid money to ensure that they got into the redevelopment
project.

Among slum households, half of the surveyed households felt that they had not benefited from the
redevelopment project at all. Also, 82% of households did not have any photo passes. Thus, even
though the residents of the slum believed that they were part of the redevelopment project, in fact their
slum was not a regularized slum—they neither held photo passes nor were they formally part of the
project.

The households living in the rehabilitation buildings (thus enjoying secure housing tenure) did not
share this perception. They were very unhappy with the facility and 36% preferred not to answer this
question; another third (32%) said they did not benefit from the redevelopment. The reason for this
negative perception by majority of the households was that they were in conflict with the housing co-
operative leadership, on issues of rehabilitation location site. The rehabilitated households complained
about the high maintenance costs; 86% of households pay between Rs.200-500 per month on house
maintenance and taxes. Another area of dissatisfaction was that the rehabilitation house was very
small and did not have an open area usable for cooking and sleeping. Some households also
complained that they had to move out some members of the family to live in a slum area because not
everybody could be accommodated in the small rehabilitation apartment (table 9.7).

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Table 9.8: Perceived project benefits by households in the rehabilitation building of the Roma
Banjara Housing Co-operative

Frequency Percent
Not Answered 36 36.4
No benefit 32 32.3
Good facility 28 28.3
Got good house 2 2
Got good water facility 1 1
Total 99 100

Access to public amenities

The total community of 668 households is serviced by a welfare centre and Balwadi located next to
Rahul Nagar. Residents pointed out that it is run by the NGO Apnalaya—not by the builder and the
housing co-operative as envisaged in SRA policy (which is also applicable to In-situ redevelopment).
The policy envisages that for every 100 households a welfare centre, a Balwadi and a housing co-
operative office is to be constructed by the builder free of cost (each of these amenities must be at least
225 square feet in area). None of these community amenities were provided by the developer in the
case of the Roma Banjara Housing Co-operative.

Voice

In the Rahul Nagar slum almost one-third of households do not have their name on the electoral roll.
The percent is somewhat lower in the transit camp of the Roma Banjara Project (24%) and even lower
in the rehabilitation buildings.

Spatially the most vulnerable community is Rahul Nagar—only 20% of households approached
MCGM directly for problems related to water supply, sewerage and public toilets. Another small
group approached the local CBO for such problems, while a large section of households did not voice
their complaint to anyone (49% regarding public toilet issues and 67% regarding water complaints).
The slum communities do not utilize regular methods for approaching their councillor or a political
leader; they are far more dependent on the local leader, or simply accept absence or poor quality of
services—a clear sign of their self-perceived helplessness. The majority of the residents of the transit
camps (63%) did not approach any leader or government agency on issues of poor quality of the water
supply; other services such as solid waste collection and sewerage follow a similar pattern. Only 20%
of transit camp households approached the MCGM directly.

The study of six sub-communities indicated that there are large differences in standards and amenities
amongst communities in M Ward. Two processes resulted in these differing standards: (1) a lowering
of public amenity planning norms for slum redevelopment and resettlement projects, and (2) high
entry barriers, such as identity proofs. All developments larger than one acre—which includes most
PAP developments—are subject to planning norms. As per the MRTP Act, the relocation site ought to
have 4,000 m² of open space and roads. Large amenities must also be outlined in the plan, and there
are clear prescribed planning norms for acceptable distance between two buildings. These norms have
been reduced for rehabilitation housing; as a result the number of people living within a specific area
is much larger. Lowering of planning standards means designing poor living conditions for the
relocated households and communities.

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Experiencing spaces in PAP townships in M Ward

Walking in Lallu Bhai compound is similar to experiencing the noise and chaos of a local train station
in Mumbai. Numerous voices and languages can all be heard at once; garbage lies uncollected at
different points, including building material and overflowing sewage; one can see people selling goods
on the sidewalks.

Gautam Nagar, on the other hand, is like entering a maze of dark high walls, where sunlight does not
venture and stale water, garbage and discarded food lie together in the by-lanes, teeming with rats and
emitting a stale stench which one quickly wants to escape.

Ideally, the development layout should envisage schools, hospitals and other similar amenities.
Observations of the PAP township revealed the existence of some amenities with some ad-hoc
arrangements. For example, an entire floor of a building in Anik PAP township is given to a private
organization to run a school, and some street markets are permitted within the township. The meagre
incentives given to the housing co-operative of PAPs—in the form of two rooms in the rehabilitation
building for every 100 households to run welfare programmes—are a poor substitute for genuine
public amenities.

Amongst the relocated community there are subgroups and different standards. The differential
housing arrangements (building, transit and slum) are justified by the service providers and the state,
by pointing to the proofs of residence that the households need to produce. This process of proofs of
residence and related claim-making creates a social hierarchy amongst residents, creating a
stratification of groups whereby one receives better services than another. This becomes relevant
within the ongoing debate of permitting differing rules and regulations for planning and amenities
within one city (Greene 1991). An unseen outcome of the relocation project is a process by which a
class structure is created along with segregation of these groups; this contradicts the universal rights
attached to citizenship (Gaventa 2006). Further, the process of excluding some households from
citizenship rights, including the right of being equally treated, is seen as discrimination by the state.

In the next section, in order to examine the impact of relocation on livelihoods, a comparison is made
between the cluster communities (1) those relocated at a distance from their earlier place of stay due to
infrastructure projects, (the MUTP cluster of communities) and (2) those relocated from their place of
stay but resettled on the same or nearby land (e.g. Roma Banjara cluster of communities).

9.4 IMPACT ON LIVELIHOODS

The two resettled communities (i.e. the Roma Banjara and Elphinstone communities) are comparable
as both are made up of largely tribal populations. The majority of households in the Roma Banjara
community belong to the Banjara tribe, while a large section of the Elphinstone community belong to
the Pardhi tribe. While the Banjara community has been predominately engaged in the construction
industry, the Pardhis of Elphinstone work in the flower business.

The households displaced by the MUTP were living near the Elphinstone railway station. Their houses
were located at walking distance from the city’s flower market where they bought flowers in bulk
during the early morning auction, later to resell them during the day either at stoplights or woven into
garlands and decorations for women’s hair. The flower trade generally involves the entire family: both
men and women buy flowers; the women weave them; and children and women sell them. The house
or the roadside pavement is used for weaving the flowers, making it easy for women to keep an eye on
the children while they conduct business.

The relocation of the Pardhi community has had a direct impact on their livelihood. During the focus
group discussions held with Pardhi families, they complained regarding the increased distance
between their new homes and the flower market and the added cost of travel by train. Due to the long
early morning travel to the flower market, the task of purchasing flowers completely shifted to the

179
men of the house, because women could not leave children alone. In some Pardhi families, the women
took on new occupations, such as selling trinkets on trains. This they identified as work with higher
risks, as they are in danger of being apprehended by the railway police.

Further, 40% of resettled households complained about the increased distance from their workplace,
with the highest percent of job losses experienced by the poorest (see table 9.8). The TISS study on
resettlement found that the main wage earners within the PAPs have retained their previous jobs;
however, in a significant number of cases, the supplementary earners have lost their jobs—often
women who worked as domestic workers and hawkers. Nineteen percent of the respondents from the
Lallu Bhai compound reported that they experienced reduction of income due to the resettlement; the
old location was seen as more favourable for the job held and seven percent of the respondents said
that the old location provided additional job opportunities for female family members. The report goes
on to say that the relocation has had an adverse effect on the occupation and income of households
from ‘vulnerable’ groups (TISS 2003).

The Roma Banjara community has been living in the same neighbourhood (roughly spanning one
square) for the past 60 years. As the construction workers who built the township of the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre (BARC), they were permitted to settle in the township itself. The majority of
residents (both men and women) worked as construction workers. Overtime, some men worked as
masons and contractors, and a few became fulltime employees at the BARC itself. The long-term
relationship between the community and the BARC officers has produced a labour network that can
provide contractual construction and maintenance labour for the needs of the BARC.

In the early 1990s, the community was resettled to a plot of land outside BARC. The resettled
community, called Roma Banjara Tanda, was just a few kilometres from their old location and the
move did not weaken this labour providing network. A number of reasons account for this stability,
including the long-standing relationship, relocation of the community close to the place of work,
internal cohesion of the community (belonging to one tribe and speaking the same language) and the
fact that employer was a single institutional employer. While all factors did play a role in retaining the
livelihood network, the most important factor was close proximity of the workers to the workplace
(within walking distance).

Table 9.9: Impact of relocation on livelihoods resulting from the MUTP Project

Did relocation have a negative impact on livelihood?

Percent of yes answers from total interviewed in
this category
Transit camp 61
Rehabilitation building 58
Rahul Nagar slum 52

Livelihood options depend not only on the set of skills and resources of the members of the household,
but also on the household’s geographical location within the city. International experience indicates
that it is worse to be income-poor in a poor neighbourhood (where most of the residents are poor
people). M Ward, as discussed in earlier chapters, has been identified as a ward with one of the largest
concentrations of households facing high levels of deprivations (as identified by (Baud, Sridharan, and
Pfeffer 2008). Rehabilitating poor households in an income-poverty concentrated ward means
reducing the household’s chances to get out of poverty. Social and economic segregation into rich and
poor neighbourhoods is known to exacerbate poverty conditions for the poor.

The study of rehabilitation township shows that a particular pattern of urban poverty (i.e. its
geographic concentration), which ’refers to the confinement of the poor to a subset of neighbourhood
locations’, also implies urban segregation (Greene 1991). This process of concentration of income-

180
poor groups appears to take place as a result of the TDR mechanism, which relocates households that
are already poor in low-priced areas of the city, thus further increasing the concentration of poverty
there. These locations also lack easy access to mass transit facilities. The study conducted by TISS
(2008) found that almost half of the respondents felt that their localities were not adequately connected
to the main road or the railway system (table 9.9).

Table 9.10: Connections of locality to main road or railway station (in percent)

Locality connected Lallu Bhai compound

None 55.3

To main road 19.9

To railway station 13.5

To both 11.3

Total 100

N 778

Source: TISS study (2008).

9.5 COMPARISON AMONGST SUBGROUPS OF ROMA BANJARA AND MUTP

CLUSTERS

In this section, I will compare the differentiation amongst the subgroups of the cluster across the two
projects, based on the findings in the earlier sections. The indicators are presented along with the
findings in table 9.10. According to data presented in this table, the highest percent of households with
low incomes (Rs.3,000 or less than $2 a day) are to be found living in the slum pockets of both
projects. This suggests that the two projects have not been able to include the poorest of the poor, who
continue to live in insecure slum areas.

The comparison also shows that slum and transit camp residents do not show differences in their
access to amenities or ownership of claim-making documents, such as ration cards or being listed on
the election roll. Similarly, the percent of households with no legal electricity and indoor toilets is high
amongst the transit and slum settlements in both projects. Furthermore, the percent of households that
are not listed on the election roll is high in all the subgroups of the community identified in this study,
including the MUTP building residents.

In table 9.10 a comparative impact indicator between the projects and the subgroups formed as a result
of the project are presented. The findings show one striking differences amongst the project
subgroups. There is a vast difference between the livelihood impacts of redevelopment as experienced
by the households in TDR relocation projects and those in In-situ development projects. The
households relocated using the TDR instrument have been relocated far away from their earlier
location, unlike the other households which have been relocated close to their earlier residence. As a
result, high percent of households from all subgroups of the TDR project experienced negative impact
on their livelihood as a result of the project (Singh and Singh n.d., in TISS 2008).

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Table 9.11: Comparative impact indicators for community subgroups

TDR Project (MUTP rehabilitation

In-situ Project (Roma Banjara)
building)
Indicators: Rahul Rahul
Rehabilitation Transit Rehabilitation Transit
Percent of Nagar Nagar
building camp building camp
households slum slum
with less than
Medium High High Medium Medium High
Rs.3,000 per month
without ration
High High Low High High
cards
not listed on the
High High High High High
electoral role
with housing
Formal Informal Shacks Formal Informal Shacks
structure as:
with illegal
electricity None High High None High High
connection
with no indoor
None High High None High High
toilets
have faced
None None High Low Low High
demolitions
with access to
Low Low Low High Low Low
public amenities*
experienced
negative impact of High High High
project on job

* such as pre-school, welfare centre, playground, medical centre.

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Key for indicators used in table 9.10

Key indicator Category Description

60% and more households within
High
the type of housing
between 50- 30% of the
Percent of monthly income Medium households within the type of
housing
Low less than 30% of the households

High 5% and more

Percent of households with no ration cards
Low less than 4%
High 20% and more
Percent of households with no name on electoral role
Low less than 19%
Formal
Percent of households with housing structure as Informal
Shacks
Percent of households with illegal electricity connection High 30% and more

Percent of households with no indoor toilets High 30% and more

Percent of households have faced demolitions High 30% and more
Percent of households with access to public amenities
(such as pre-school, welfare centre, playground, High 30% and more
medical centre)
Percent of households that faced negative impact of
High 30% and more
project on job

9.6 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

Let us revisit the question raised at the beginning of this chapter: Do new planning instruments reach
out to informal settlements and contribute to improving living conditions of these communities? Data
collected from two projects was analyzed—Roma Banjara, a project using the In-situ redevelopment
instrument, and the MUTP project, which uses the TDR instrument to rehabilitate PAPs. The
redevelopment/resettlement projects that employed NPIs had dual impact: clustering of housing for
the poor in low-priced areas and facilitating a process of splintering of the rehabilitated communities.

Extrapolating the results from these case studies to the city level highlights NPIs’ two main effects.
The first is the spatial restructuring of the city: rehabilitation housing is constructed in areas where
land is less costly and commercial housing (middle and high class) is built in high-priced localities,
using TDR. The second effect is that in the areas where rehabilitation housing is built, the ‘slum
communities’ of eligible residents are splintered in the rehabilitation process into several groups.
Those in the group that is best off receive new housing; the next best group is housed in transit camps
and awaits selection for permanent housing. Those worst-off are those excluded from new slums in the
surrounding area.

The case studies also showed that the process of rehabilitation fragments the community into three
different categories: (1) those who benefit from it; (2) those who are in the process or in the transition
period of acquiring benefits; and (3) those who have been excluded. These categories manifest as
different communities located on different plots of land in close proximity to each other—they are
geographically fragmented. The communities are not completely exclusive or cut off from each other

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socially. Sometimes there is overlap and often interconnected relationships exist, some of which are
financial and others of charitable. The relocation established a clear hierarchy of sub-communities.
The results also indicate that redevelopment processes (using either In-situ or the TDR instrument)
have a common weakness of not including all residents. These excluded claimants cluster together to
form another geographical and interest-based community. The excluded communities, such as those in
Maharashtra Nagar Slum and Rahul Nagar Slum, live on the margins of the redevelopment projects
and are discriminated.

Although improvements in housing and land tenure security are achieved by the sub-community living
in the rehabilitation building, one direct consequence of this improvement in living quarters is the
negative impact on the employment. The losses made in the domain of livelihood need to be
quantified but they appear to be large, and it will take some households a few generations to regain
their lost economic status. These findings are not unique to this study; the practice of relocating PAPs
far from their earlier place of stay has been discouraged by the norms laid out by various policy
statements, including those by the World Bank. Despite these policy guidelines, the harmful practices
of relocating PAP households far from their earlier areas of residence are still implemented. Perhaps
this is because PAP households are poor and no longer valued by the state as contributing to the new
economy and are easily dispensable. Thus, for every gain the PAP households make with regards to
housing security, an equal or more important trade-off is made vis-à-vis quality of previous livelihood.

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CHAPTER 10: WHOSE REGIME IS IT ANYWAY?

INTRODUCTION

This chapter has three goals: (1) to recapitulate the findings of this study and answer the key
questions; (2) to assess the contribution of this study to the theoretical discussions presented in chapter
2; and finally (3) to develop recommendations for research and policy in the field of urban
development.

The key questions of the study were: How did the new urban regime in Mumbai emerge in the early
1990s? What regulatory framework did it set up? and What are its impacts on urban space and
inequalities? To answer these questions, I will first list in section 10.1 of this chapter the necessary
characteristics of a regime as outlined by Dowding et al. and then present data from this study
corroborating regime formation in Mumbai. In section 10.2 I will examine the factors that led to the
emergence of a new regime and explore the role of the relevant actors their resources and agency. In
section 10.3 the key features of the new regime and its regulatory framework will be analyzed.

In section 10.4 the policy outcomes of the new regulation and their impact on the delivery of public
amenities and urban development will be presented. Section 10.5 focuses on the new regulations and
their ability to deal with or reduce existing inequalities in the city. Section 10.6 is a reflection on the
conceptual framework used in this study and the last section provides a few recommendations for
actions that the involved actors can pursue.

10.1 EMERGENCE OF A NEW URBAN REGIME IN MUMBAI

The previous chapters have presented a number of reasons and evidence indicating the emergence of a
new urban regime in Mumbai. The adapted model of Dowding et al. (1999) is used as a framework to
argue that indeed a new urban regime is emerging in Mumbai. Dowding et al. (1999) suggests that the
regime model (referring to regime analysis) has eight characteristics; in order to identify a particular
local government coalition as a regime, a subset of these characteristics needs to be present. The first
four are particularly important. A regime should have (1) a distinct policy agenda, which is (2)
relatively long-lived and (3) sustained by coalitions of interests or personnel not formally or fully
embedded in institutional structures. This joining often is in the form of a ‘grand coalition’ or a larger-
majority coalition of interests, and often crosses (4) cross-sectoral or institutional boundaries. There
are also additional characteristics. The policy agenda should also (5) survive personnel and leadership
changes, thus reflecting a specific ideology or agreement over fundamental values for members of the
coalition, which can provide continuous electoral success. It should also (6) primarily involve the
mobilization of external resources, creating a positive-sum game within the polity and the formation of
public-private partnerships, which often transcend partisan divisions. It should (7) be associated with
strong or exceptional leadership, capable of creating unusual coalitions and providing a distinctive
political vision. Also it tends to (8) bridge institutions and community interests by creating forms of
‘partnership’ between the public and private sectors.

Following the first condition set by Dowding et al., a regime must have a distinctive policy agenda.
The policy agenda of the new urban regime was to reduce the control of the state and its agencies over
urban land use and its development; i.e. to liberalize urban land planning and its development. The
second condition is that a regime must be relatively long-lived. The liberal urban development regime
fulfils this requirement; it has been active from the early formulation of the development control plans
and rules throughout the implementation of the urban plans. Thus the new liberal urban regime has
been fulfilling multiple roles in urban development for the past twenty years.

According to the third and fourth conditions, an urban regime should be sustained over a long time by
a coalition of interests or persons who are not formally or fully specified in institutional structures,

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often in the form of a ‘grand coalition’ or a larger-majority coalition of interests and often across
sectoral or institutional boundaries. The liberal regime in Mumbai also fulfils these two conditions.

The regime is likely to continue as long as real estate remains an attractive investment—i.e. TDR
market rates remain high—as this is essential to ensure the cross-subsidy element of the market
instrument. The state is likely to continue to support the Liberal coalition as long as some public goods
are delivered, and public opinion remains favourable to the politicians in power and the policy.

As earlier chapters of this study have shown, the projects of the Liberal growth coalition ensure that
the interests of almost all stakeholders are to be realized by the larger-majority coalition of interests.
The market-based instrument of cross-subsidies allowed higher FSI on the condition that the interests
of both squatters as well as middle class citizens and local government planners were partially
realized—via the construction of public amenities and SRA type of formal housing for the eligible
squatter communities. The overlapping interests of so many actors are sustaining the new regime.

The Liberal urban coalition of Mumbai is cross-sectoral. For example, SPARC is an actor from the
civil society sector that played an active role in framing the rules governing the Slum Redevelopment
Authority, which was established by the Shiv Sena controlled state government. SPARC and SRS are
two NGOs active in implementing a number of projects of redevelopment and resettlement that utilize
market instruments. Both private developers who work the state sector and civil society organizations
of squatter settlers are active project-implementing members of the liberal coalition (Burra 2005;
Afzalpurak 1995).

The fifth condition for a networking process to qualify as a coalition is that the policy agenda
promoted by the coalition ought to survive personnel and leadership changes or political succession.
This reflects agreement among the coalition members on a particular ideology or fundamental values,
which allows continuity despite electoral changes. Evidence from the twenty years of the functioning
of the liberal regime in urban development shows that it has survived personnel and leadership
changes at the level of state government as well as political succession in the city of Mumbai.

Other conditions for being recognized as a coalition, as defined by Dowding et al., require a formation
to mobilize external resources, creating a positive-sum game within the polity and the formation of
public–private partnerships as instruments of delivery (often transcending partisan divisions). The
Liberal growth coalition of Mumbai has utilized primarily two mechanisms for mobilizing external
resources: (1) traditional sources such as grants and loans from the Government of India and bilateral
agencies, such as the World Bank; and (2) new mechanisms to raise funds, which include partnerships
with multinational real estate agencies and multinational corporations. The new mechanisms include
participation in international tenders for development contracts, e.g. the redevelopment project of
Dharavi (Patel and Arputham 2008).

Public-private partnerships or multi-actor purpose vehicles have replaced earlier models of state and
contractor arrangements for delivery of public amenities by the liberal regime. The liberal regime in
Mumbai allows non-governmental organizations—such as SPARC, SRS and Nivara Haq Suraksha
Samittee (NHSS)—to participate in the provision of public goods. The role of civil society actors has
shifted from marginal to more substantive; they actually manage resettlement and rehabilitation
processes and have grown from managing single site projects to managing medium- and large-size
resettlement townships (Nainan 2008; Bhide and Dabir 2010).

While it may appear that the boundaries between some actors in implementing projects are becoming
blurred, some NGOs—notably SPARC and NHSS—have remained critical of several efforts of the
liberal coalitions. For example, SPARC and its team of academics and writers have written in
Environment and Urbanization on the shortfalls of extreme liberalization, which according to them
does not allow for adequate participation of the people who live in these settlements. This relates in
particular to the more recent writing of SPARC on Dharavi. These NGO efforts are emerging from the
more community-oriented spectrum of the coalition, with the aim to gain entry into the newer

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partnerships between state and global capital, which have left the NGO sector out (Patel and Arputham
2008).

Thus it is possible to conclude at this juncture that the liberal coalition has entered a new phase as
some of its members are engaged in developing innovative instruments of upscaling the liberalization
agenda via global partnerships with the private sector (in other words, for the construction of slum
housing). In turn, the NGO members of the coalition are questioning this partnership between private
and state actors, and in doing so are looking to secure benefit from these new, multi-actor financial
arrangements of urban liberalization. Although efforts to scale up are not a new feature of the
coalition, SPARC has also used international network formations to change the rules (World Bank
regulations allow NGOs to act as contractors, or even make their participation mandatory, as in the
slum sanitation project in Mumbai) and to connect with South African networks of slum dwellers
(through the Homeless International Network). With these actions, SPARC is fighting the strong push
by private global actors to control slum redevelopment.

The seventh condition is associated with strong or exceptional leadership, capable of gathering
unusual coalitions and uniting them under a distinct political vision. This exceptional political
leadership was provided by Chief Minister Sharad Pawar in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His unique
abilities underscore what is required to create diverse coalitions, namely his ability to relate to and
engage with members of all sections of society, including political parties, members of civil society
and media outlets as well as all the private sector. His skills as a sharp negotiator were tested during
the process of coalitions building in the late 1980s as the rules were being framed for the Development
Plan of Mumbai (Nainan 2006).

Once the road map for the liberal regime was paved under Sharad Pawar’s leadership, another leader
was needed, in order to ensure the implementation of the plan. This leadership was provided by Shiv
Sena’s Bal Thakare, who prior to the state assembly elections promised 40,000 free houses to the slum
dwellers of Mumbai. In 1995, when Shiv Sena won the elections they created institutions and provided
resources to implement this project of liberalization.

The eighth condition set by Dowding et al. is that the coalition should bridge institutions and
community interests by creating ‘partnerships’ across the public-private sector divide. Was the liberal
regime of Mumbai able to realize this? Under the new regime the role of the market actors has
changed. Landowners who previously resisted development—even lobbying to have their lands
declared as ‘no development zones’—were now willing to become partners in the development of
their land. They are currently participating in partnerships to redevelop lands utilizing planning
instruments (such as TDR, higher FSI and Accommodation Reservation etc.), which increases the
profitability of their land. The behaviour of the landowning market actors changed from being non-
cooperative to acting as active builders in urban development. Large private landowners and the new
commercial sector started playing another role. They became active in setting goals and priorities of
urban development, continuously engaging with the state to design new interventions and projects that
make specific geographic locations financially attractive for private sector investment.

As a result of the liberalization in urban development, the relationships between the actors have
changed along with their changing roles. There is a closer and more open alliance between the private
actors and state government. The emerging private sector think-tanks and institutions set up for
funding SRA (such as the SSPL) straddle the boundaries between these two sectors.

Formal arrangements of relationships that involve multiple actors beyond the state are novel to India.
State-based arrangements are hierarchical and top–down (command-and-control) forms of setting rules
and exercising power. Nevertheless they are seen as legitimate via socially agreed conventions of
representation, delegation, accountability and control. These new forms of arrangements beyond the
state have been labelled ‘governance’ in urban political literature (Pierre and Peters 2000). Schmitter
defines governance as a method/mechanism for dealing with a broad range of problems/conflicts in
which actors regularly arrive at mutually satisfactory and binding decisions by negotiating with each

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other and co-operating in the implementation of these decisions. ‘Governance beyond the state’ is
resolutely put forward as presenting an idealized normative model that promises to fulfil the
conditions of good government ’in which the boundary between organizations and public and private
sectors has become permeable’ (Schmitter 2002). It implies a common purpose, joint action, a
framework of shared values, continuous interaction, and the wish to achieve collective benefits that
cannot be gained by acting independently. The evidence and discussion above suggests that under the
new regime, urban development in India is making a transition from government-directed and
controlled to more diffused and indirect governance arrangement (Stoker 1998; Rakodi 2003).

Slum redevelopment created opportunities for medium and small contractors, who re-entered the
urban development arena as builders. Thus it appears that the new urban developmental regime helped
scale up market actors, not only in terms of project size or type of work but also in terms of their
power relations with sections of the government. The scaling up of market actors is merely an
enhancement of earlier ties and relationships that the actors had with sections of the state (officials or
elected representatives).

Another section of the actors that joined the coalition included senior state government officers and
the section of civil society that agreed to accept partial land reservations for public amenities, i.e. the
reduction of those listed in the earlier Development Plan. Thus, one could conclude that the coalition
was able to bridge the interests of the urban development organizations and local communities.
Although there is broad consensus on liberalizing urban land regulation, concurrently the role of the
private sector in delivering public goods within the coalition is being contested by civil society groups.
They are asserting that some builders do not follow regulations in delivering public amenities and
exclude project residents. As a result, there are confrontations within the broad coalition that culminate
in the form of public interest litigations filed in the High Court of Mumbai.

Further, one section of civil society—academic institutions and human rights organizations—has
chosen to stay out of the Liberal coalition and has taken on the role of assessing the impact of the
liberal coalition’s policies and projects on the squatter community and on city space as a whole.

Thus the Liberal coalition in Mumbai does fulfil all the eight conditions set by Dowding et al. for the
emergence of an urban regime. Having established that a new regime has emerged in the urban sector
in Mumbai, I will now go on to examine what factors led to the emergence of this regime in the next
section.

10.2. HETEROGENEOUS ACTORS AND INTERESTS

The land acquisition stalemate of the early 1980s was frustrating for both landowners and builders.
Large sections of private land — almost fifty percent of all land in Mumbai — was practically stuck in
litigation over public amenity zoning under the Development Plan. The local government did not have
resources to acquire the land, nor the power to change legislation (e.g. the Land Acquisition Act) or to
institute measures for raising revenue (e.g. to increase taxes). The competencies of the local
government were largely confined to the implementation phase. Under these conditions the
formulation of the revised Development Plan for the city provided opportunities to work out some of
these problem areas.

The findings of this research show that formulation of a Development Plan, which in theory is a
process of state intervention in urban development, in practice opens up the possibility for influence
and intervention of other actors. This is not surprising as the plan’s scope is vast, dealing with
redistributive policies of land development and directly impacting commercial and social needs and
other interests of many actors. Furthermore, the process itself is drawn out, complex and conflict
ridden. The liberal policy shifts by the Union Government under the rule of Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-
1980s, which came into force in the early 1990s, contributed to new market-led strategies in urban
transformation.

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The private sector played a key role in the formation of the liberal land regime. The private sector can
be categorized by the size of firm, the type of work it performed or whether it was a landowning
group. In the 1970s, three landowning categories existed; a very small number of large landowners
and a very large number of medium- and small-size landowners. Furthermore, very large landowners
were at the same time well-established industrialists.

The strong controlling role of the state in the 1970s led counter reactions among the landowning
section of the market actors; they predominantly resisted state appropriation of private lands but also
developed an appeasement strategy towards state government, requesting of it to allow exceptions
under the law in favour of private development. This process of working with the state was undertaken
by a chain of actors in which the interests of the landowners overlapped with the interests of the non-
landowning class (professional architects, planners, lawyers). Together they formed what has also
been called the ‘builders’ lobby’ or the ‘development network’ of the city.

The urban development private sector is well-organized, both internally as well as externally. It is
made up of the builders, contractors, masons and other skilled workers as well as producers and
suppliers of building materials. Their ties and relationships are based on family, friends and
community, some of which can be traced over generations and are village, language, clan or jati
specific.

Urban developmental professionals (architects, planners and engineers) organize themselves in the
form of a professional association (PEATA). By also allowing builders to join, the regime brought
professionals (who worked with private as well as public agencies) together with landowners and
builders under one banner. This association proved to be one of the most powerful organized actors in
urban development. It worked closely with local government officials to find means to bypass
overcoming state controls and in the process experimented with creating new planning instruments.
These experiments of jointly planning and designing market instruments have produced positive
results as a number of their innovations found their way into the rules framed under the Development
Plan and its implementation.

As earlier chapters have shown, civil society has been divided around social class categories—the
haves and have-nots. In this situation city dwellers and the building homeowners were pitted against
squatters. Within the squatter settlers there are many subcategories, such as the pavement dwellers, the
railroad dwellers, and the urban village dwellers. The social class structure of Mumbai is reflected in
the location of one’s homes, and the tenure and amenities provided in each location. This explains the
concentration of poverty in communities of workers who live in informal squatter communities, with
the worst physical infrastructure and housing amenities (Risbud 2009; Baud et al. 2009).

Homeowners have different needs than squatters. Homeowners have achieved their basic personal
housing needs and are more interested in fulfilling the needs of their neighbourhood (such as green
spaces, solid waste management, good roads etc.). Consequently they organize around such issues of
communal interest. Organizations such as Bombay Environmental Action Group and its newer version
Citi Space exemplify this type of civil society groups. Among the suburban homeowners there are two
sub-categories. The first is made up of persons who live in townships (also called colonies), such as
Pestom Sagar residents association, Nagrik Nivara Parishad. These colonies are mostly to be found
towards the east side of the city and are made up of middle class housing societies with the majority of
the residents being employed fulltime in the government or private sectors. The residents of these
colonies were generally organized as workers by unions affiliated to a political party in the 1970s.
The other sub-category of suburban homeowners is petty or medium business owners, professionals
and cinema artisans. Unlike the housing colonies, here there is a predominance of single building
structures, with apartment ownership by the occupying households. These are located predominantly
in the western side of the city. Self-organization at the community level has traditionally been low in
these communities and dependent on the organizational efforts at building level. Such organizations
take the form of housing co-operatives (which the state has made mandatory).

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Squatters organize around fulfilling their basic needs connected to housing and the related services,
such as water and toilets. As they have been excluded from the urban development process, their
demands have concentrated around securing inclusion in these projects. Traditionally shack dwellers
organize under political parties, which taken up their cause and seek to secure basic amenities and
housing.

These two class-based civil society groups—homeowners vs. shack dwellers—are in conflict with
each other over the same piece of land on two fronts: the allocated use of the land (park/recreation vs.
housing) and the means to influence decision-making. Homeowners use their networks of government
officials to implement their projects, while shack dwellers use their voting power and their elected
representatives to seek access to services and amenities (Baud and Nainan 2008). Thus civil society is
split along social class lines, which in turn is primarily a function of homeownership and geographic
location in the city.

Under the new liberal urban development regime a section of the shack dwellers has been included in
urban development primarily as ‘squatters’, meaning that they can benefit from housing rehabilitation
within redevelopment projects. This requires that squatters give their consent to redevelopment and
become participants in their own re-housing, be it on-site or off-site. This process of turning squatter
residents into housing development actors was accompanied by a process of formalization of existing
social formations amongst shack dwellers (rehavashi sangathnas, i.e. residents’ organizations or
Community Based Organisations—CBOs). Most of the organizations of squatter residents were
formed to survive demolitions and access services from the state, and, spurred on by the introduction
of redevelopment projects by the liberal regime, have been transformed into development agents of
builders.

Another change under the new liberal regime has been the entry of a new set of civil society groups
called NGOs, distinct from homeowner organizations, a mutual beneficiary group (CBO). These new
formations worked with and for the benefit of the shack dwellers, the poor, women and other
marginalized group. Their intervention in urban development has been via multiple strategies,
including education, organization, protest, demonstrations of viable alternatives, or by advocacy
against human rights violations at the local, national and international levels. These organizations
secure resources by designing projects and seeking donations and contribution from foundations,
charity agencies and universities (both locally and internationally).

Looking at the intervention of NGOs in urban development, three predominant categories are visible.
One category of NGOs directly became involved with the delivery of housing under the new regime,
essentially becoming builders for the poor (e.g. SPARC, SRS). The second category of NGOs consists
of those that continued to pursue social action, organization and advocacy in urban interventions (e.g.
YUVA, universities, church groups). A third type of NGOs did a bit of both, pursuing development,
action organization and advocacy at the same time (e.g. Nivara Haq Suraksha Samittee).

The conflict between these two sections of civil society—homeowners vs. shack dwellers—is old and
based on class struggle. What then is new? The new factor is the entry of NGOs as builders and shack
dwellers organizations as participants, as agents and intermediaries of the high-rise renewal of their
communities. The key question is whether the entry of NGOs and Community Based Organizations
into urban development has brought improved equity in the city. In this section I have analyzed non-
state and state actors that intervened in urban development and touched upon some changes in these
actors under the liberal regime, in terms of type and activities. What has emerged is that behind the
façade of state and non-state actors the age-old struggles fester, rooted in social classes and class based
interests.

The analysis of the actors shows that they are more numerous than the literature suggests, as each
category has several subcategories. These subcategories are formed on the basis of common resources
and interests. So not only are actors more numerous and more heterogeneous than expected, their
organizational boundaries are also fuzzy, as they operate from several different roles. Within one

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category of actors, the interests differ between subgroups, so that one needs to recognize and
differentiate between their organizational forms. Further, a closer examination of the actors engaged in
the Growth coalition shows that there is overlap between economic and political actors. The
policymaking arena is much more heterogeneous than the literature suggests. There is a strong need to
form networks, associations, coalitions and alliances, in order to exercise influence and to achieve
common goals and interests (Nainan 2006).

10.3 ACTOR’S RESOURCES AND STRATEGIES

A closer look at the policy formulation process shows that, based on the actors’ interests, two
formations appear at the city level and link actors across sectors: one pushing for the de-regulation of
land rules while the other seeks to retain zoning and regulations governing private land reserved for
public amenities, i.e. a continuation of the earlier land regimes (table 10.1).

Thus the pro de-regulation formation can be called an advocacy coalition—it brings together different
social sectors and seeks to influence policies and practices from a liberal ideological angle. The
coalition was constructed on the mutual recognition of the participants’ status and entitlements as well
as the capacity to reach and implement relatively stable compromises in the pursuit of their
overlapping interests and joint projects.

A section of the pro-deregulation (pro-growth) coalition went on to win the state and national elections
in the mid-1990s. BJP and Shiv Sena ruled Maharashtra under Chief Minister Manohar Joshi from
1995 to 1999. The BJP with its National Democratic Alliance ruled the central government from 1998
to 2004. Thus, the coalition of the economic class of small and medium landowners, professional
groups of builders and architects and slum residents transformed the old economic and political
regime. The old regime was led by the Congress Party and supported by large landowners and
industrial houses in the manufacturing sector. This was also the section that wanted to retain the old
regime as it allowed for special favours and concessions.

Table 10.1: Comparing strategies and arenas used by the two coalitions

Coalition type Pro-growth coalition No-growth coalition

Policy belief Pro-state deregulation Pro-state regulation and delivery
• Snowball the pact process to include
all possible landowners and interest • Raising issues of rule violations and
groups irregularities
• Building bridges amongst • Filing litigation against the state and
Strategies
themselves local government
• Consensus around a vision of • Public mobilization and social action
transforming Mumbai into a global
city
• State cabinet of ministers and the • Print media
Self-selected improvements committee at the • High Court—via Public Interest
arenas local government Litigation
• The street

Strategies
The predominant strategy used by the pro-deregulation coalition was to snowball the pact process to
include all possible landowners and interest groups. The pact was an attractive accommodative offer.
Part of the reserved land owned by private landowners was surrendered for public use; in exchange the
landowner received part of the land to develop further. It appears that AR landowners also made a
similar pact by which they would be allowed part development provided they resettle the squatters on
the same piece of land. The evidence of these pacts is found in the form of promissory letters issued
by the state government to the landowners whose lands were de-reserved even prior to the passing of
the Development Plan.

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The pro-growth coalition overcame fragmentation by constructing a single body to negotiate with the
state. In the process they settled the differences between several coalition members and jointly decided
on policy areas beneficial for all members. At a later phase, the strategy included building a consensus
on the goal of growth—the idea of transforming Mumbai into Singapore or Shanghai. This process is
recognized by urban scholars as constructing a global city vision for Mumbai by the elite of the city.

Arenas
The pro-growth coalition used various arenas to exercise its strategies. While some of the arenas were
reactive arenas to strategies of the no-growth coalition (such as the courts, the assembly or print
media) perhaps the most powerful one was the state cabinet of ministers and the Improvements
Committee of the local government, responsible for recommending the various planning rules and
regulations.

The no-growth coalition

This formation pushed for retaining existing land regulation. It appears to be more of a civil society
policy network type: their ties are loose and information is the primarily resource they exchange. This
network brought together actors with common expertise in environmental matters. The section of
society with conflicting interests to the interests of the squatters was the home-owning middle class
who lived in the Island City, represented by a section of the civil society groups and environmental
groups. They were a loose network that was a part of the traditional regime upheld by the Congress
Party and economically supported by the large landowners and industrial houses, many of whom had
offices and properties in the Island City of Mumbai.

Strategies
These groups sought to block the process of de-reservation of public amenity lands. The resources of
the middle class groups were close contacts with several MLAs as well as access to courts and the
print media. Public Interest Litigation was extensively used as a strategy to influence the policymaking
process.

Arenas
The courts, the assembly, street and print media were the primary arenas where the no-growth
coalition intervened.

Negotiations
Building and landowning entrepreneurs have for long been active in influencing urban development
policies at different government levels, with the help of professional associations. Their intervention in
urban development via the debates on the Development Plan is only an extension of their earlier role.
Thus the actors are not new; the changed environment provided them with an opportunity to come out
in the open and directly defend their interests as private builders (not under the guise of professional
associations).

For the first time building entrepreneurs made a collective pact with the government to deliver social
amenities. On the basis of this pact, the Shiv Sena in 1995 promised squatters 40,000 free housing
units in Mumbai. It appears that private entrepreneurs for the first time went beyond their own private
interests and collectively took on the responsibility for public works. The political leadership of the
new regime, in power in the state government, took on the commitment to provide the environment for
private actors to fulfil this new role of delivering public amenities. The state government also set up
financial institutions and an independent authority for sanctioning developmental projects—SPPL and
SRA.

The findings of this study also show that during the formulation of the Development Plan the state
government took on a larger role in negotiations between the elite homeowners (the ‘green brigade’)
and the group of building entrepreneurs and squatters. The state government took on the role of policy

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broker; this was a new role and vastly different from its earlier role in urban development, as both
designer and executor of decisions. While Shiv Sena, enjoying a majority position in local
government, struck a pact with middle and small building entrepreneurs and landowners, the Congress
Party, in power at the state government level, did the same with large landowners. In a way the
political parties dealt with the sections of the private sector that overlapped with their own
constituencies.

Another change is observed in the role played by the civil society groups. Groups such as Save
Mumbai Committee and BEAG were not very well known civil society groups prior to the
negotiations. Through their protests against the policy, they obtained recognition as representatives of
special interests of society/the environment. Also Public Interest Litigation was a not well known prior
to its extensive utilization during this period.

Thus, it appears that the strategies and interventions made by a group of building entrepreneurs and
professionals worked towards securing a broad based consent of all actors towards liberalizing urban
development, using the Development Plan of Mumbai as an event. Even environmental groups
accommodated the idea of a liberal regime, with the hope that some development of public spaces
would take place. It can be observed that a process of value accommodation took place under
conditions where the majority of the actors felt that partial acceptance of developmental goals was
better than no acceptance, as it was expected to achieve common interests of all actors. The various
New Planning Instruments (NPI)—TDR, AR and SRA—are the policy results of these negotiations
that spanned over ten years.

The findings of this study are similar to those of Palumbo and Nachmias, who point out that
policymakers are not always looking for the best way out of a stalemate; instead they are looking to
secure support for action already taken and that serve the interests of their constituencies. The process
of governance in Mumbai appears to be a de facto system where earlier practices, experiments and
land occupations became legalized rules, changing the predominant planned and rational process of
urban development interventions (Palumbo and Nachmias 1983; Nainan 2006).

However, this de facto type of governance is only found in terms of the macro-level inclusion in the
Development Plan of practices that were previously labelled as irregular under the earlier regime. At
the micro-level of projects the study found that urban interventions are bound by land prices (which
are location sensitive) and the ability of actors to generate resources from multiple sources. Space for
negotiation is limited at the micro-level interface, unless it is supported by negotiations at the macro-
level. In this way, the two interface levels link up, connecting projects and actors of the micro-level
interface to policy negotiations and actors at the macro-level interface. The completion and success of
individual projects depends on the ability of actors at micro-levels to link up and influence the macro-
level policy interface, and thus steer resources and rules to facilitate the achievement of their project
goals. In this process each (re)development project becomes commoditized and produces
commercially attractive products in the form of TDR or housing units that can be easily marketed. It
results in further integration into the land market. The higher the expected price of the unit the closer
the integration into the land market, and the better are the chances that the project will be profitable in
the real estate sector.

10.3 KEY FEATURES OF THE NEW REGIME AND ITS REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Whether the current urban regime of Mumbai is liberal or neo-liberal is not yet a topic of discussion
among scholars. The regime is often presented as a neo-liberal regime by housing rights and land right
activists, as they try to draw parallels between urban and rural phenomena of land alienation and
displacement, seen as indicators of the ongoing process of restructuring capitalism in India. Both the
use of tradable market instruments as well as the global linkages of coalition actors is indicative of a
neo-liberal regime. However, what we also observe today is not a reduction of state sovereignty and
planning capacities, but a displacement from formal to informal techniques of government and the

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appearance of new actors on the scene of governance. This indicates fundamental transformations in
statehood and new types of relationships between state and civil society actors.

Some of the earlier practices of state and citizens—such as clientelism—are carried forward along
with some new practices, which are predominantly corporatist. Thus the features of the new regime
are a combination of a clientist and corporatist type regime, while the regulatory framework is drawn
from a market-oriented mode and is capitalist in nature. The regulatory framework demands of
citizens to act as demand agents and it encourages self-responsibility. This appears as a move to foster
a neo-liberal relationship between governmental bodies and citizens. Therefore I argue that the new
regime—despite exhibiting elements of earlier regimes—has core values that are closer to the notion
of the liberal regime (Baud and de Wit 2008; Lemke 2002).

In table 10.2 below, a comparison is made between the traditional regime and the liberal urban
development regime, which is the outcome of efforts undertaken by the growth coalition. I argue in
this section that the governance mode has shifted from a predominantly clientelist mode to a
corporatist one under the liberal regime. During the process of regime formation, some features of a
pluralist mode were visible, with marked dominance of brokering and mediation between competing
interests. Once the changes in rules were established, a consensual process has developed within a
liberal governance regime, using exclusionary negotiation as its primary method of governing
relations amongst actors.

The new liberal regime depends on market instruments to raise funds and provides public goods using
a cross-subsidy principle. As a result the regime is based on the market mode of order, utilizing land
prices as means of controlling the production of public amenities rather than values of equity and
principles of planning. Going from predominantly government control or hierarchical mode to market
control of the delivery of public amenities is a shift to the other extreme, making the delivery of public
amenities vulnerable to market fluctuations.

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Table 10.2: Comparing the traditional and liberal urban regime

Features of a regulatory
Traditional regime Liberal regime
framework
Mode of governance Clientelist Corporatist
The process of regime formation
included features of pluralist
mode where in brokering and
Particularistic personalized
Governing relation mediating between competing
exchange
interests dominated. Exclusionary
negotiation is currently in
practice.
During the process of regime
formation, the governing logic
Governing logic Reciprocity was of conflict management.
Consensus building is currently in
practice.
Politicians, powerful civic leaders
Key decision makers Politicians and clients
and private sector.
Political objective Material Purposive
Share of development rights in
Money in exchange for free
Instruments used for governance exchange for free and constructed
and constructed land
land.
Conditional application of land
Mechanisms of control Development control rules
markets. Controlled by FSI rules.
Private ownership broadened
Security of tenure
based on condition that newer
/Landownership pattern and Private ownership by few
owners are relocated on locations
related rights
at the margins of the city.
Skewed in favour of high-rise
Skewed in favour of western
Spatial selectivity of the regime development of squatter
suburbs of the city.
settlements.

The new liberal regime is based on the concept of consensus building and accommodation of interests
of those actors whose entitlements are recognized by the regime. Entitlement is not natural or given
but is created in the process of negotiations; thus, the framework itself is exclusionary in practice. It
appears that there is a shift from the earlier clientelist practices at the micro-level, which were an
intrinsic part of the delivery of public amenities and services to squatter settlements. Such room for
negotiations makes the regulatory framework a political process. Sections of society continue to
depend on the ability of political parties, developers and NGOs to ensure their inclusion. This is a
surprising continuation from the earlier state controlled regime, where clientelist forms of
relationships were the primary means of inclusion for the squatters.

In terms of security of tenure the liberal regime has allowed many more squatter settlements to realize
security via the slum rehabilitation and resettlement programme. This came more from development of
cheaply acquired lands located on the margins of the city than from In-situ development. The spatial
selectivity of the state in the traditional regime appears to continue with the spatial selectivity by the
liberal coalition, even though the selected place for development has undergone a change. This
strategy of slowly releasing land appears to ensure a continuous supply of opportunities for the
building industry.

Land prices and TDR prices are a mechanism of control in the liberal regime; they have not replaced
the policymaking responsibility of the state. As a result the land market is jointly controlled and
regulated by a combination of factors. However, decision-making on rules in the liberal regime
requires a higher level of information on land prices and its spatial impacts, given that TDR is not the
only fungible instrument in practice. The regulatory aspect in understanding land markets and
fluctuating land prices still suffers from limitations at the level of government bodies, due to absence

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of a cadastre and clear land titles. TDR, FSI and real estate prices are going to be key instruments for
designers and planners of urban development. It is imperative that information on these land markets
be analyzed and fed into a regulatory body, which would in turn decide based on this information
rather than perpetuating the current laisser-faire situation.

The stated political objective is to liberate private lands from the control of the state and slums, and to
bring it into the market in the form of private and public goods. Thus the regime can be seen as
deliberate in nature. As mentioned earlier, the spatial selectivity of the regimes is retained, although
the location of the space has changed. In both instances the goal of special selectivity appears to be to
guide growth in specific sections of the city.

10.4 POLICY OUTCOMES OF NEW REGULATIONS AND PLANNING INSTRUMENTS

ON PUBLIC AMENITIES AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

New Planning Instruments have been successfully used by the private sector and NGOs in
constructing rehabilitation housing for the project affected persons (PAPs) displaced by the city’s
infrastructure projects. A comparative performance analysis of the NPIs shows that the TDR
instrument performs best in terms of sharing land with the public amenity. AR performs better in
actually delivering the public amenity; however, land sharing with the public amenity is average. In-
situ redevelopment has a low performance on all counts (percentage of land plots acquired, percentage
of private land shared with public amenities and ownership of the public amenities) suggesting a need
to review the instrument. Definitely more plots are acquired using New Planning Instruments by state
and local government—and at a quicker rate—than with the Traditional Planning Instruments.

Furthermore, the data also shows that AR and TDR are better performing instruments in terms of plot
acquisition and AR is the best performing instrument in terms of both acquisition as well as delivery
of public amenities. This study calls for a review of the In-situ instrument in its present form, its goal
of accommodating the interests of three sectors (public, private and occupants) is compromised; only
the private sector’s and some occupants’ interests are currently accommodated.

However in terms of delivery of public amenities (transforming land into usable amenities) both the
traditional instruments (LAA) and NPIs (TDR) show a similar performance: 51% of land plots
acquired under LAA are fully developed as a public amenity and 53% in the case of TDR.

Data gathered from a representative sample of public amenities shows that NPIs are effective in
providing an alternative to cash compensation for lands acquired from small and medium landowners.
It is not perceived as an attractive compensation package by large landowners. The problem of
providing public amenities on acquired land is not resolved completely by these instruments, and
several of the acquired plots are still to be developed. Even though NPIs do show improved
performance over traditional instruments, they do not fully meet the goals set by the Development
Plan.

New regulation and space restructuring

The impressive figures on the number of public amenities constructed by the use of NPIs are put in
perspective when the focus of the study shifts to outcomes and impacts of these NPIs. One of the
outcomes of TDR is a spatial preference for developing a certain type of amenity in areas with specific
land prices. The majority of the SRA constructed housing using the TDR instrument takes place in the
ward with the lowest land prices. Further, this ward has already been identified as a ward with one of
the largest squatter settlements as well as high levels of deprivation, as the majority of the squatter
population is from the Dalit community. Thus, the TDR mechanism pushes the poor and project
displaced people (pavement dwellers, railroad dwellers and others) into one pre-selected section of the
city, thus continuing the class and caste-based geographical segregation of the city (Nainan 2008).

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A problem with any urban land intervention is the possibility of increasing commercialization of
serviced land and other outputs, a process that integrates urban life more closely with the capitalist
economy. Some of the mechanisms of integration into markets include packaging, production
contracting and internationalization. The general impact of commoditization of urban development
provides for a differentiation between urban households, with a tendency to polarize relations between
social classes. Within academia the focus has been on the impact of polarization on the weaker
members of the working class who live in slum communities. Two outcomes have been identified as a
result of the commodification of urban land and development rights: the spatial segregation of classes
and welfare polarization, also known as inequity among social classes in urban areas.

In the discussion of outcomes, it is crucial to consider whether the policy or regime increased equality.
Is new urban development regime, which includes NGOs and CBOs as development actors and uses
NPIs as its prime mechanisms of urban development, able to bring about a fairer distribution of land
and related amenities among city dwellers? A key question is to examine which section of the
community has benefited from the new planning instruments and whether living conditions have
improved for all. In this context, it is important to study physical assets (such as housing and basic
amenities), as well as access to public amenities and social and political capital, as these are likely to
be impacted by the NPIs (Rakodi and Lloyd-Jones 2002).

On the one hand providing large outputs, such as a large number of housing units for PAPs, can be
seen as creating equality for a large number of former shack dwellers who now are homeowner.
However, on the other hand, it is accompanied with the negative externality of high-density upper
class housing in western coastal suburbs of the city. This has resulted in growing protests from the
upper middle class who view this building boom as aggressively reshaping their neighbourhood. There
are several key negative externalities of NPIs:

• NPI’s increase the number of amenities produced but simultaneously increase land prices,
fragmentation and homelessness in the city.
• Competition among landowners and builders causes conflicts.
• NPIs are strongly exclusionary and shape the character of the city (a point largely overlooked
by the literature).
• The new land instrument builds on existing land prices, which in combination with political
manipulations of rules, creates clusters of PAP housing in low priced areas of the city, with
poor basic environmental services.

Undesirable outputs include increased land prices, concentration of social depravation (ghettoization),
additional social class conflicts, more projects stuck in a stalemate, increased privately sponsored
violence in slum communities, and increased competition amongst private builders for development of
slum areas, resulting in displacement of shack dwellers. The relative ease of generating NPIs (e.g.,
providing TDR certificates as compensation to the private sector either for land or construction) has
made it possible for the elite of the city to realize their vision of the city as a global city. It provided a
fungible instrument without disturbing the capital markets or levying new taxes. Relocating PAPs in
newly constructed TDR housing has made relocation and displacement an accepted phenomenon of
Mumbai; displacing one community to accommodate another is justified by the vision of the city by
the political elite (Nainan 2008; Bhide and Dabir 2010).

The Mumbai case shows that, as a result of these new rules, segmented localities have appeared.
Class-based polarization has gained ground with the redevelopment of slums and rehabilitation of
households ousted by infrastructure/public amenity construction, maintaining class structure and
building or earlier spatial segregation along class lines. Spatial selectivity by the state in favour of the
upper class is only a continuity of an early path dependency set in colonial times. Even though the
specific locations subject to urban renewal have changed with changing regimes, the modern state
employs similar strategies as the colonial regime. According to Dossal, during insecure times it opts
for a conciliatory strategy with the landed owners or land occupiers; while choosing to act more
aggressively during periods when expansion of urban territory is seen as necessary (Dossal 1995).

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10.5 NEW REGULATIONS AND UNEQUAL IMPACTS ON COMMUNITIES AND
HOUSEHOLDS

The results of the study show that the redevelopment processes—regardless whether Insitu or TDR—
all have a common difficulty of not including all the residents; thus, a section of the claimants is
excluded from benefiting from the project. These excluded claimants cluster together to form another
geographic and interest based community. The excluded communities, such as Maharashtra Nagar
Slum and Rahul Nagar Slum, exist on the margins of redevelopment projects.

This process of including some and excluding other households of the community or defining the
project community on the basis of practice needs or viability of the project is responsible for
splintering of the community. This splintering of geographies and habitat has an impact on the social
cohesion and collective services in the community. The splintering process is not viewed by the
interviewed sections of the community as a positive process.

NGOs and housing rights movements have been able to include those groups of squatters who were
not recognized as rightful beneficiaries of the city’s services and amenities, i.e. those living on
pavements or railroads. However, as the rules for the resettlement are set by the state (in terms of cut-
off dates) and the market (in terms of location of resettlement sites), NGOs have a limited impact.
Thus NGOs are able to include a section of those excluded by urban development but still are bound
by the rules set by the state and the market. While a section of the homeless did manage to secure land
tenure, this study and other studies in Mumbai show that sections of those resettled continue to be
excluded by projects of the liberal regime, and the clearing of squatted lands for construction projects
of the liberal regime results in additional homeless on the streets (Roy 2009; Vaquier 2010).

NPIs are able to provide housing and land tenure security for a section of the relocated community,
but there is an unintended negative consequence of this improvement: a negative impact on
employment. Thus, for every gain the households make with regards to housing security, an equal or
higher trade-off is made vis-à-vis previous livelihoods activities.

The fragmentation appears in three different sub-groups: (1) those who benefit, (2) those who are in
the process or in the transition period of benefiting, and (3) those who have been excluded. These sub-
groups appear as different hut clusters located on different plots of land in close proximity to each
other. These clusters are not completely exclusive or cut off from each other, but retain old identities
of being one community, in one instance even having shared organizations and collective amenities.
The degree of fragmentation and its impact on social cohesion and coping mechanisms of households
in NPI projects needs further study.

A clear hierarchy of sub-communities is established as a result of the project, with the worst-off
excluded people living in nearby shacks. They are followed by those living in transit accommodations,
while those who are best-off have secured a housing unit under the project. Findings from this study
show that the fragmentation of geographic communities into sub-communities based on class results in
a breakdown of community cohesion and has a negative impact on their social and livelihood
networks. Graham and Harris discuss urban splintering as a phenomenon in urban supply networks
(2001). However, the fragmentation of communities as observed in Mumbai is of a different kind.
Vaquier presents a similar pattern of fragmentation of communities among those households relocated
from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai. He observed that the size of the new houses
allocated to squatters is only 225 square feet. As a result, an implicit selection process takes place;
some family members must stay in the slum or find an alternative housing solution. He further finds
that those who move back into the slum are mainly men who either have low education levels, are old
enough to start their own nuclear families or are highly dependent on the local slum economy for their
livelihood (Graham and Harris 2001; Vaquier 2010).

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10.6 REFLECTIONS ON THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The framework developed in chapter 3 serves as the base for this study. The findings of this study
have contributed to creating a new conceptual framework, which I call the ‘new framework’. The
strengths of the author’s original conceptual framework lie in its recognition of sectoral parameters,
actors and their resources and the possibility of multiple coalitions that can compete with each other.
These aspects brought in sectoral particularities along with the focus on actors and their networks.
These aspects lend themselves well to the study of development regimes of Mumbai. Another aspect
of the author’s model is the assumption that policymaking is only possible when there is consensus
amongst various actors. In doing so the framework accepts the ’power to’ concept of regime analysis.
Thus the framework widens the scope of the research to seek processes that are at the same time both
collaborative and competitive, in order to establish a degree of consensus required for urban
development.

There are several new features of this model, visible in the new framework (see figure 10.1). First,
time-dynamics, spatial scales and cross-social group perspectives have been added to the framework in
the bottom left hand corner. Second, outcomes of the negotiations between two or more coalitions are
often new formations that allocate or reallocate resources, positions and rules. Thus new spheres of
study are created, including new institutions, new instruments, new modes and new regimes (in the
centre and to the right in the framework). Third, another addition is the study of policy outputs, policy
related projects and policy related programmes (see the left hand corner of the framework). The fourth
is the existing institutional parameters/conditions, reflected in the time/scale related axes; this shows
how certain functions of the institutions are time and scale bound by law (time axis) and scale levels
(scale axis), as shown in the framework figure below. These change only when new institutional
parameters are introduced.

Figure 10.1: A new framework for future research

Source: Author

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Context features of the new framework

Amongst the contextual parameters of the base framework, which were to have a critical impact in the
formation of the new development regime, was the opportunity provided by the formulation of the
new Development Plan. While many other factors did not undergo dramatic change, the advent of the
next planning stage created new opportunities and political space for actors to intervene and influence
the plan making process and the rules that govern it. This suggests that urban regime shifts need a
clear transformational moment, such as the requirement to draft a new Development Plan. Such
practices need to be studied as separate events; therefore, the context parameters have been placed in a
separate domain (see middle of figure 10.1).

Another missing element in terms of context factors is the role of political parties, especially the
emergence of two new political parties, one at the city level and another at the state level. Both parties
needed a clear agenda to build broad-based coalitions and to generate funds. The interests of these
political parties along with the interests of the private landowners and builders created sufficient
bargaining strength to alter the formal rules, resulting in the new urban regime. Therefore, analytically
speaking, a new framework needs to take into account several dynamics: the dynamics of the
transformation momentum within the state; the relations between local, provincial and national levels
of government (both among bureaucratic structures and elected officials); and the dynamics of
political parties.

Process features

The original conceptual framework presented in chapter 3 ignored the informal process of decision-
making, very strong in the hidden arena. Informal networks and process of decision-making exists and
provide valuable additions to any study on policy regimes. Policy innovations are developed during
these processes, to be turned into formal policies when the opportunity arises. The process of policy
innovation and formulation in urban development in Mumbai appears to follow this pattern.

The base framework identifies two possible types of brokers (politicians and government officers) and
views them as single functioning neutral actors, as individuals who may not have any direct interest in
the outcomes of the policy. The findings of this study on actors and their negotiations on urban
policies show that these brokers hold different positions at different levels and also professionals (such
as architects) act as brokers at different levels of government. Further, politicians and government
officers are not neutral actors; some of them may also be landowners or partners of building
entrepreneurs.

The study’s focus on rulemaking of the revised Development Plan was useful as it allowed the author
to explore this process in depth. However it was also a limitation: when policy bargains are struck at
the national or state level, bargaining takes place on multiple policies at the same time. This makes the
study of policymaking more complex and multi–scalar, as actors sit at the negotiation table looking at
multiple policies at the same time.

Similarly there are multiple interfaces among policy actors when interventions and practices are being
negotiated: at the community level, at the administrative ward level, at the city and at the state level.
The locations for these interfaces include courtrooms, assembly halls, and at election time the entire
city becomes an interface space. Even though the study was bound in terms of only focusing on the
Development Plan, with special attention on NPIs, it was not envisaged at the beginning that it would
also cover so many different interfaces.

Most analytical frameworks completely disregard time as a process feature. This study found that
rulemaking—both globally and for specific areas of the city—is rapidly changing and speeding up.
Thus, the rulemaking cycle is faster and more dynamic geographically than usually recognized. This
requires adding the dimension of time explicitly to the entire framework.

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Often studies on policymaking and influence in South Asia point out that decision-making is
influenced not only at the policy framing stage but more so at the implementation stage. This makes
the study of outcomes of policy influencing processes a very important component of any study.
However, the findings from this study show that policymaking and implementation need to be studied
as actions of an on-going process of actor interventions. Policies are framed by the actors who
participate in their implementation. A snapshot approach to policy studies may be a starting point, but
decision-making and implementation processes constitute a continuous process of action and
reflection. If policymaking is thus understood as an ongoing dynamic process and includes
implementation as well as policymaking, we need to include a larger number of its features in any
analysis. Assigning a bigger role to private actors in policy innovation, framing and implementation is
not unique to South Asia, as Domhoff demonstrated in his study of elite rule in the American context
(Domhoff 1983). Guha too has shown that the landed and industrial elite in India had a large say over
the role of the state in the post-independence era, via what is called the Bombay Plan (2008). The most
important finding of this study is that private sector actors are all pervasive and hold a large stake in
framing and executing urban development policies and projects. No comprehensive study of urban
development is complete without understanding their interests and actions at all stages of the policy
process (Van der Linde 1993).

A second important finding of this study is that policies are essentially earlier practices that already
existed informally, sometimes in violation of earlier policies. The policymaking process formalizes
these longstanding informal practices by formulating new regulations and allocating resources to
support such practices. This emphasizes the necessity of examining informal processes, experiments
and practices in the shadow of official organizations.

Outcome features

Policy content analysis was included in the original framework because it views planning instruments
as new rules that generate resources and cause shifts in the roles played by different sectors. However,
there is the missing element of spatial analysis. It needs to be added to the policy content because it
takes into consideration NPI externalities that are spatial in nature. Spatial analysis is currently
receiving a lot of attention, specifically the role of the state in shaping urban space and its impact;
however, much of the writing is concentrated on studying projects and their spill-overs or the
decision-making power of the state. The findings of this study show that a fragmented or project
approach to studying outcomes on urban space has limitations as it does not examine the
interconnected aspects of urban geographies. Urban land markets on the whole are impacted when
policy interventions are made in urban development, impacting land prices and their availability to
different classes of urban residents. TDR generation and usage rules combined with existing habitat
preferences of elites and land prices have impacts on urban space as a whole (Bhide and Dabir 2010;
Brenner 2004; Benjamin 2008).

What is the outcome feature? Which features are essential to study? These are debatable questions.
The outputs are rather narrow: identifying the quantities of amenities constructed and delivered, the
relevant aspects to study, the policy impact on the geographic distribution of urban interventions, the
spatial impact of market instruments (especially for cities that are already fragmented in terms of
class/housing types). Further, as it is well established by other empirical studies that market
instruments do cause externalities, it is advisable to include the study of externalities and their impact
on city spaces. One of the difficulties with studying outcomes of urban land and developmental
policies is that their implementation in the context of today’s India takes a long time to realize, given
the complexities of land tenure systems and practices. It takes a period of fifteen to twenty odd years
to translate policies into projects, which is a lengthy time span for examining outcomes.

Another approach has been to study the impacts of the outcomes on poor households and their
communities, as has been done in this study. Although the findings do show interesting features
pointing in terms of analyzing the results of the policy implementation process, they do not adequately
encapsulate the problems faced by the city as a whole. Further, ‘the poor people’s approach’ is finding

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less and less sympathy with policymakers; it is actually having a negative effect on residents receiving
benefits (slum dwellers) and encourages discriminatory practices by politicians against slum dwellers.
What is required is therefore to study the impacts of planning instruments and regimes on collective
goals and visions of the residents of the city, following Kabeer and Subramanian’s suggestion that
trends or outcomes of any institutional intervention need to be evaluated in terms of whether they
promote human well-being (Kabeer and Subrahmanian 1999).

The outcomes of any policy, therefore, need to be examined from the perspective of common goals
held by all residents, not just one section of residents. Thus the uneven geographies approach provides
a clearer picture of overall outcomes. Spatial analysis as an outcome variable should be assessed at
levels relevant to the issue in question (across social classes, city areas with different land prices or
ownership types and other factors).

On the basis of the findings of this study, the author recommends the use of the ACF framework with
some additional improvements. The recommended framework for studying urban policy regimes in
India ought to include the following features—over and above the ones developed by Sabatier and
Jenkins Smith (1999) and the improved version presented in chapter 3 of this study:

1) A time scale should be included as an extra dimension in studying policymaking

processes, specifically in its relation to the institutional opportunities that could be
provided for including the voice of hitherto excluded social groups. Furthermore, the
frequency with which the actors engage in the policy formulation process is another aspect
of a time scale. If the cycle is frequently repeated it is more likely that decision-making
happens closer to the ground.
2) Other dimensions especially useful for analyzing the outcomes of the policy process are
space and institutional scale.
3) The study of institutions formed as a result of policy changes needs to be included as a
type of policy outcome.
4) The importance of studying outcomes has already been stated earlier; the only change in
this respect is that outcomes should be grounded in a humanistic goal applicable to all
residents irrespective of class, caste, citizenship, age or gender.

Suggestions for additional research

A crucial finding of this study is the critical role played by organizations of actors who have common
interests. This study has shed more light on these formations (networks, associations and political
parties) as well as the roles they play in urban policy formulation and implementation. The literature
and empirical research on actor organizations and formations in urban development is meagre. What
are the kinds of formations that exist in urban areas? What roles do they play in urban development?
What strategies do they use to influence the state? These questions need to be addressed to better
understand urban planning in India. Also there are several theoretical questions that need to be
addressed requiring additional research. Should class-based vote banks be considered associations?
How are political parties different or similar to the associations formed by professionals? How are
political parties and their members different or similar to other membership based organizations?

Further, are the findings of this study only applicable to cities that similarly to Mumbai have large-
scale private landownership or do similar patterns of coalition formation exist in other large and
medium-size cities in India? Mumbai also has the unique characteristic of enjoying an active middle
class and civil society, which can build a strong opposition to the pro-growth lobby. Do similar
formations take shape in other cities of India, and to what extent does civil society influence the
process of liberalization of urban land and development?

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10.7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Review of NPIs

Despite lofty expectations, NPIs have not been able to deliver what was envisaged by their promoters.
The lack of funds and inability of government agencies to convert acquired lands into collective
amenities have left the task unfinished. Their major success is in realizing housing in clusters for PAPs
in low priced land areas of the city.

These outcomes and impacts outline several courses of action that have to be considered: the need to
review NPIs, in terms of making TDR land-price sensitive; completely doing away with In-situ
development as an instrument for delivery of public amenities; using TDR with caution, keeping in
view the externalities and poverty hotspots it creates; as well as reactivating some of the Traditional
Planning Instrument and schemes (e.g. the Town Planning Schemes), with the objective of reducing
current widespread dependence on NPIs for providing public amenities.

Perhaps some of these impacts could be mitigated if the state were impartial and set up regulatory
bodies to monitor the role of private markets and actors. However, as the state operates as an involved
party—ensuring and maintaining its own interests of accruing benefits from land development—the
role of impartial regulator may be difficult to perform. This shift of the state from a development to an
entrepreneurial actor is undesirable, especially in a country where inequity among social classes is
evident and growing. The state can still focus on many development interventions, especially tasks
(such as rental housing) which the market will not perform. The states own land management practices
need to be reviewed and it should adopt active approaches to land planning and management. There is
a need to review ownership of land by multiple levels of government which adds to fragmented rules
governing land and its development in megacities.
From the Mumbai case the conclusion is that NPIs cannot be created for one location with the belief
that they will not have an impact on other parts of the city—there is no exclusivity of planning
instruments. TDR in one location results in negative externalities in another location; this emphasizes
the connectedness of urban policies. Planners need to be more cautious in borrowing models from
high-income countries, given the uniqueness and size of cities in India. Furthermore, there is a dire
need to include social scientists, economists and land managers in such planning teams.

The approach of planning itself needs to be reviewed; the Indian state operates predominantly from the
high modernist approach to planning, which is rather authoritarian and impractical given the varied
interests of the actors and high level of informality of the city. There is a need to move away from Le
Corbusier’s Chandigarh model of urban planning towards one which is based on practical knowledge
of the residents of the city.

Reviewing high-rises as the only development alternative

High-rise buildings or the SRA type of housing model are financially viable in high priced land areas
or in exchange of TDR. Other options for redevelopment without high-rises are needed. This is
especially so for village or gauthan communities which have large open areas in their neighbourhood.
SRA is not a viable alternative, as they are heritage areas and need to be maintained as such.

However, given the need for habitat improvement, other alternatives ought to be considered, such as
allowing these communities to trade the TDR they receive, in exchange for foregoing high-rise
development. The other possibility is to constitute new development rights for such communities,
along the lines of carbon credits earned by environmentally sound villages. These can be earned for
not increasing densities and maintaining heritage or/and diverse habitats rather than a mono-type of
high-rise developments. The current bias in the regulations towards high-rise development as the only
alternative needs to be reviewed and replaced by other possibilities of habitat improvement and tenure
security.

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Although improvements in housing and land tenure security are achieved by the sub-community (the
households living in the rehabilitation building), the direct consequence of this improvement is a
negative impact on employment. Thus, for every gain the households make with regards to housing
security, an equal or higher trade-off is made vis-à-vis previously held livelihoods.

Further, there is insufficient research on the impact of high-rise housing on the livelihoods of slum
residents. Livelihood and support networks are essential for the survival and subsistence of low-
income households. There is a need to study the impact of changes in housing type on households’
livelihood activities. Longitudinal studies concerning the impact of rehabilitation on household
livelihood need to be undertaken. This will also help the development of livelihood strengthening
strategies for resettled households and individuals.

MRTP norms apply to any development of one acre and above. Most PAP developments are above
this stipulated one acre, and by that virtue these norms should also apply to the PAP townships. This
means that by law the relocation site ought to have 4,000 m² of open space and roads as well as all the
necessary amenities (such as schools, health centres, police stations), which ought to have been
outlined in the blueprint of the plan. However the norms for rehabilitation housing have been reduced,
resulting in much higher densities with fewer amenities. Certain regulations—especially on living
space area and amenities—need to be respected by all, and monitoring adherence is an essential
regulatory role of the state.

Earlier slums are perceived as a problem, which needs to be fixed or moved out, with the SRA high
rise development programmes, slums are perceived as new places of urban regeneration. The existing
approach to slums appears to be blind to the economic activities, which are carried out in slum
communities and the sheer vibrancy of these communities. There is a need to evolve a collective non-
problematizing perspective about slums and their symbiotic role in urban development.

Building social bridges

The findings of this study show that the last two decades have resulted in further fragmentation of the
urban space and social classes. There is an urgent need to reverse this process, which can only be done
by creating mixed communities, in terms of class and social groups.

Further, there is urgent need to ensure that the high-rise housing stock generated with NPIs does not
turn into slums. Given that some townships are in complete violation of the MRTP Act, the already
live in slum like conditions, high density and small space between tall buildings. Their further
deterioration needs to be curtailed, by engaging the project community in solid waste management,
maintenance and improved care of their housing townships.

Another way to go about integrating far-flung rehabilitation areas is to improve their connectivity to
the city via rapid public transport. Urgent urban intervention is required to integrate ghettos into the
city, given the scale of urban fragmentation that NPIs have caused. Beyond these remedial measures,
there is a need to bring in knowledge of land prices and land market dynamics into the policymaking
process.

Project vs. plans

An important finding of this study is that the revised Development Plan of the city has been overtaken
and subverted by the project type of urban intervention, via the NPI mechanism. Furthermore, the
central government programme JNNURM is yet another intervention that acts as a parallel process to
the Development Plan as it requires an alternative plan called ‘City Plan’ to be produced by urban
local bodies. As a result, one finds that these development plans/master plans exist in name only—
projects and programs dominate and create a patchwork development in the city. The dilemma is
whether to eliminate the master plans or to tie projects, programmes and plans together to improve
their effectiveness. Under the 74th Constitutional Amendment the wards committees have a larger role

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in urban planning. It will be quite a challenge to institutionalize a genuine bottom-up process of
planning with all stakeholders and therefore remains more of an ideal notion of how planning ought to
be.

Currently, there appear to be a number of multi planning process, regional plan, and master plan of the
city, programme lead planning and decentralized planning of the city all carried out within the state
and its various institutions. On the other hand there is private sector plans such as the Vision Mumbai,
process and mega projects. Perhaps, Mumbai suffers from a context of over planning and poor
execution. It appears that some of the problems of Mumbai (such as housing, international airport, etc.
) will need to be sought outside limits of greater Mumbai in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which
is only possible if rapid transport reduces distances and develop a genuine polycentric region along
with active regional networked organizing capacity. The current political leadership needs to deal with
the regions institutional fragmentation and the narrow identification of most of the leadership with the
island city as Mumbai before take on the charge of planning for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Further, governance by superficially tight and centralized development control rules in largely
informal self-help entrepreneurial cities which are easily changed to cater to the building industries
demands needs reflection. Perhaps there is a need to develop codes for neighbourhoods’ or wards
rather than development rules for the city. This will keep the unique quality of the neighbourhoods
alive and build on existing social capital which has affinity to its architecture and layout as well as in
the process institutionalize decentralized planning as envisaged by the 74th Constitutional Amendment.

It is important to stress the need to bring in local knowledge in the formulation of plans, because the
land tenure system is complex and not documented. Local knowledge also helps mobilize local
resources as well as address constraints and conditions, fundamental elements for the production and
reproduction of this heterogeneity. Similar experiences in other areas have found that externally
designed and planned interventions that offer tested and standardized solutions are simply unable to
build upon local knowledge and experience. As a result, they possess very little mastery over these
highly diverse local situations. Furthermore, the importance of consensual development—despite the
continuation of conflicts—cannot be stressed enough (Watson 2009; Scott 1998).

Strengthening actor ties

The shack dwellers community needs to find different ways to enter into dialogue with the market and
state. It has to operate in an ever-changing environment and the stable two party relationship between
community and state is a thing of the past. The new era will be marked by three sectors: the market,
the state and the civil society.

Civil society in urban India is fragmented along class, caste and other forms of identities. The working
class in the past has pressured the state to support its causes by using protests and strikes. The result is
a demand-based politics of interest groups and actors that developed in India. During the liberalization
era, the approach generally has been to blame the market and the state for joining hands together
against civil society. A more desirable and workable approach is for civil society to strengthen its ties
within the sector (across classes and groups) and externally with the state on certain programs on
which civil society and the state agree. It is the best way to reconcile the interests of the state and civil
society. Homeowner’s organizations need to stop demonizing slum dwellers and stop blaming
politicians for slum growth. There is a need for middle class homeowners to work along with workers’
organizations to achieve a common minimum programme for the city. This new alliance holds within
it the potential of shaping the future of the city and tilting the balance from the market towards society.

The state—despite its internal differences and competing interests of the political and administrative
wings—needs to reaffirm the trust of civil society in the state. The state has to commit to the needs of
people in society openly and demonstrate that such needs are most important, by acknowledging that
without the partnership of civil society redevelopment and growth of the city is impossible. It has to
withdraw from pacts made with the market and reaffirm earlier social contract made with the society.

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Only after establishing this firm link should it seek ties and projects with market actors, regardless
whether national or international.

My approach towards policy is not limited to setting out policy tasks for the state alone; it also traces a
path for the empowerment and growth of civil society, as it transforms itself as an equal partner with
the state. Their common goal should not be to beat the market but to work with the market to provide
common goods and services (public amenities).

I end this study with a reminder of the sanctity of the social contract created between the state and the
people. The people give their authority to the state, with an expectation that each individual receives
common goods as an indivisible part of the whole. Jawaharlal Nehru on behalf of the new state made
such a contract with the people of India; he called it a pledge in a speech he gave on the occasions of
Indian Independence on 14th August 1947. The following sections of that speech serve as a reminder
to all actors of the challenging task at hand:
At the stroke of midnight when the world sleeps, India will awaken to life and freedom...
freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this Assembly, a
sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Their service of India means the
service of millions who suffer...it means ending poverty...to bring freedom and opportunity to
the common man, to the peasants and workers of India, to fight and end poverty; to build up a
prosperous democratic and progressive nation, and to create, social economic and political
institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman. And to
India, our much loved motherland the ancient, the eternal and the ever-new, we pay our
reverent homage and we bind ourselves afresh to her service.

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APPENDIX

SUMMARY THESIS

Although only around a quarter of India’s total population lived in urban areas in 2011, the absolute
size of the urban population is already almost 287 million people. Large differences are found among
urban areas as well, with mega-cities drawing more attention because of their importance as major
contributors to the national economy. The pattern of economic shifts towards large cities fits into the
international debates on urban areas as drivers of economic growth. Mumbai is one such city, whose
development is not only important to its 12 million residents but also for the entire country. The city
is now the financial and commercial capital of the country, housing some of the largest oil, trade,
finance companies along with a booming Hindi film industry. Following economic liberalization in
the early 1990’s the city is said to have become part of the global economy.

Given its importance in terms of urban development and land development more specifically, Mumbai
has also been the scene of contentions and conflicts, where power struggles between various classes
are fought. Decisions on how use urban land should be used, developed and who should be the
decision-makers are matters of politics, which often result in conflicts. Such conflicts are exacerbated
as the city is very small in area size, with half its population living in slums, and a large section of the
population working in the informal sector. Disparities in income, amenities, housing and services are
glaring.

In this study the issue is taken up of how the state intervenes in urban development and what the
effects are on different sections of the urban population. The study covers the strategic period when
major shifts in the state’s intervention in urban development occurred, via the process by which
Mumbai’s revised Development plan of 1991 emerged. The introduction of market mechanisms to
deal with problems of getting private land into the public domain for developing collective public
amenities. It specifically looks at the question to what extent and whether engaging non-state actors in
urban development could solve the problems of delivering amenities to all residents of Mumbai. It fits
into discussions on state interventions in urban land management policies, as well as discussions on
new forms of urban governance in which the state interacts with non-state actors in deciding the
direction of urban development.

One of the main instruments of land policy is urban and regional planning. In its (urban or regional)
Development Plans the state can provide strong or weak directives on how land use should be
structured. A direct relationship is said to exist between the extent to which a country’s state wants to
control land policy and the degree of urban planning. Realizing urban development plans necessitates
getting land under direct control of the state. Public amenities such as schools, hospitals, parks, all
need land. Acquisition of land has been one of the means of getting privately owned land under public
ownership and use. Under the Town Planning Act, local and state governments have to provide public
amenities to urban dwellers. For this, three broad sets of tools have been identified – planning tools,
land development tools and legislative and fiscal tools. Urban development is carried out using a
combination of these tools where the government plays both a regulatory as well as a developer-
provider role for public amenities and housing.

The modern Indian State has used various instruments to realize land policy goals, through direct
intervention in land development either by providing infrastructure or through land acquisition for
public purposes. Another instrument has been the regulation of land use - by zoning, building control
rules and regulations, often executed by local government. A third set of instruments concerns fiscal
measures such as taxation and stamp duty. As a provider, the state’s strategy has been to acquire
private lands for public use, thereby establishing its eminent domain. The legal instrument has been
the Land Acquisition Act enacted by the former British colonizers. The national government in India
has also played a regulatory role by controlling size of land holdings, house rents and land use through
a number of regulations.

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The interventionist role of government has come under much criticism by World Bank officials and
the private sector. Their view has been that state intervention in the housing market has failed, because
it has frozen land supply in the formal markets. This has resulted in large sections of the city
population being forced to seek housing in slums or informal markets. These neighborhoods function
outside the planning and regulatory framework of the city with poor or no access to amenities. People
living in these informal communities have fewer rights to amenities, depending on the degree of
informality. Thus the poor have not benefited from strict planning regulation.

India’s shift from a mixed to a more liberalized economic system in 1991, is also reflected in the
government’s urban land policy. Nationally, a shift occurred in the government strategies to reduce
direct interventions in urban land development. India’s Fifth Five-Year Plan marked the turning point
of the ideological stance held by the state on land. Land was now perceived by the state as a
“resource” and income-generating tool, in contrast to earlier socialist ideas of preventing private
concentration of land ownership.

In Maharashtra State, a lesson learned from the Navi Mumbai experience was that if compensation to
private landowners is made attractive, large areas of land can be acquired. There was a willingness to
experiment with new modes of compensation for the private sector in urban areas. Further, use of
fiscal measures as a means of controlling land policy decreased. In Mumbai, at the local government
level, there was a move towards using innovative measures such as the New Planning Instruments,
including the Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and Accommodation Reservation (AR) as
modes of compensation to private landowners whose lands had been reserved for public amenities.
New Planning Instruments required a closer working relationship with different non-state actors.

The key questions of the study were: How did the new urban regime in Mumbai emerge in the early
1990s? What regulatory framework did it set up? What were its impacts on urban space and
inequalities? As analytical framework Dowding’s approach indicating the necessary characteristics of
a regime was adapted and used as starting point for analysis. The adapted model was used as a
framework to argue that a new urban regime did emerge in Mumbai. The regime model has eight
characteristics; in order to identify a particular local government coalition as a regime, a subset of
these characteristics needs to be present. A regime should have (1) a distinct policy agenda, which is
(2) relatively long-lived and (3) sustained by coalitions of interests or personnel not formally or fully
embedded in institutional structures. This joining often is in the form of a ‘grand coalition’ or a larger-
majority coalition of interests, and often crosses (4) cross-sectoral or institutional boundaries. There
are also additional characteristics. The policy agenda should also (5) survive personnel and leadership
changes, thus reflecting a specific ideology or agreement over fundamental values for members of the
coalition, which can provide continuous electoral success. It should also (6) primarily involve the
mobilization of external resources, creating a positive-sum game within the polity and the formation of
public-private partnerships, which often transcend partisan divisions. It should (7) be associated with
strong or exceptional leadership, capable of creating unusual coalitions and providing a distinctive
political vision. Also it tends to (8) bridge institutions and community interests by creating forms of
‘partnership’ between the public and private sectors.

In Mumbai, relationships and roles between the main actors have changed as a result of liberalization
in urban development. There is a closer and more open alliance between the private actors and state
government. The emerging private sector think-tanks and institutions set up for funding SRA (such as
the SSPL) straddle the boundaries between these two sectors.

Formal arrangements involving multiple actors beyond the state are novel to India. State-based
arrangements are hierarchical and top–down forms of setting rules and exercising power. Nevertheless
they are seen as legitimate via socially agreed conventions of representation, delegation, accountability
and control. New forms of arrangements beyond the state have been labelled ‘governance’, defined as
a mechanism for dealing with a broad range of problems/conflicts in which actors regularly arrive at
mutually satisfactory and binding decisions by negotiating with each other and co-operating in their

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implementation. ‘Governance beyond the state’ is resolutely put forward as presenting an idealized
normative model that promises to fulfil the conditions of good government ’in which the boundary
between organizations and public and private sectors has become permeable’. It implies a common
purpose, joint action, a framework of shared values, continuous interaction, and the wish to achieve
collective benefits that cannot be gained by acting independently. Under the new regime, urban
development in India is making a transition from government-directed and controlled to more diffused
and indirect governance arrangement.

Slum redevelopment as a major process created opportunities for medium and small contractors, who
re-entered the urban development arena as builders. The new urban developmental regime helped
scale up market actors, not only in terms of project size or type of work but also in terms of their
power relations with sections of the government. The scaling up of market actors is merely an
enhancement of earlier ties and relationships that the actors had with sections of the state (officials or
elected representatives).

Another set of actors that joined the coalition included senior state government officers and the section
of civil society that agreed to accept partial land reservations for public amenities. Thus, one could
conclude that the coalition was able to bridge the interests of the urban development organizations and
local communities. Although there is broad consensus on liberalizing urban land regulation, the role of
the private sector in delivering public goods was being contested by civil society groups. They
asserted that some builders do not follow regulations in delivering public amenities and exclude
project residents. As a result, confrontations within the broad coalition culminated in public interest
litigations filed in the High Court of Mumbai.

Further, one section of civil society—academic institutions and human rights organizations—chose to
stay out of the Liberal coalition and has taken on the role of assessing the impact of the liberal
coalition’s policies and projects on the squatter community and on city space as a whole.
The Liberal coalition in Mumbai fulfils the eight conditions set by Dowding for the emergence of an
urban regime.

Under the new liberal urban development regime a section of shack dwellers has been included in
urban development primarily as ‘squatters’, meaning that they can benefit from housing rehabilitation
within redevelopment projects. This requires that squatters give their consent to redevelopment and
become participants in their own re-housing, be it on-site or off-site. This process of turning squatter
residents into housing development actors was accompanied by a process of formalization of existing
social formations amongst shack dwellers (through CBOs). Most of the organizations of squatter
residents were formed to survive demolitions and access services from the state, and, spurred on by
the introduction of redevelopment projects by the liberal regime, have been transformed into
development agents of builders.

The analysis of the actors shows that they are more numerous and heterogeneous than the literature
suggests. Subcategories are formed on the basis of common resources and interests. So not only are
actors more numerous and more heterogeneous than expected, their organizational boundaries are also
fuzzy, as they operate from several different roles. Interests differ between subgroups, so that one
needs to recognize and differentiate between their organizational forms. There is overlap between
economic and political actors engaged in the Growth coalition. The policymaking arena is much more
heterogeneous than the literature suggests, and there is a strong need to form networks, associations,
coalitions and alliances, in order to exercise influence and to achieve common goals and interests.

Analysis of the policy formulation process showed that two formations appeared at the city level
linking actors across sectors: one pushing for the de-regulation of land rules while the other sought to
retain zoning and regulations governing private land reserved for public amenities, i.e. a continuation
of the earlier land regimes. The pro de-regulation formation can be called an advocacy coalition—it
brings together different social sectors and seeks to influence policies and practices from a liberal
ideological angle. The coalition was constructed on the mutual recognition of the participants’ status

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and entitlements as well as the capacity to reach and implement relatively stable compromises in
pursuit of their overlapping interests and joint projects. The predominant strategy used by the pro-
deregulation coalition was to snowball the pact process to include all possible landowners and interest
groups.The no-growth formation pushed for retaining existing land regulation. It was more of a civil
society policy network type: their ties are loose and information was the primarily resource
exchanged. This network brought together actors with common expertise in environmental matters.
The strategies and interventions made by a group of building entrepreneurs and professionals worked
towards securing a broad based consent of all actors towards liberalizing urban development, using the
Development Plan of Mumbai as an event. Even environmental groups accommodated the idea of a
liberal regime, with the hope that some development of public spaces would take place. The process of
governance in Mumbai was a de facto system where earlier practices, experiments and land
occupations became legalized rules, changing the predominant planned and rational process of urban
development interventions.

However, this de facto type of governance was only found in terms of the macro-level inclusion in the
Development Plan of practices previously labelled as irregular under the earlier regime. At the micro-
level of projects the study found that urban interventions were bound by land prices (which are
location sensitive) and the ability of actors to generate resources from multiple sources. Space for
negotiation was limited at the micro-level interface, unless supported by negotiations at the macro-
level. In this way, the two interface levels link up, connecting projects and actors of the micro-level
interface to policy negotiations and actors at the macro-level interface. The completion and success of
individual projects depended on the ability of actors at micro-level to link up and influence the macro-
level policy interface, and thus steer resources and rules to facilitate the achievement of their project
goals. In this process each (re)development project became commoditized and produced commercially
attractive products in the form of TDR or housing units that can be easily marketed. It resulted in
further integration into the land market. The higher the expected price of the unit the closer the
integration into the land market, and the better the chances that the project would be profitable in the
real estate sector.

The governance mode shifted from a predominantly clientelist mode to a corporatist one under the
liberal regime. During the process of regime formation, some features of a pluralist mode were visible,
with marked dominance of brokering and mediation between competing interests. Once the changes in
rules were established, a consensual process has developed within a liberal governance regime, using
exclusionary negotiation as its primary method of governing relations amongst actors.
The new liberal regime depends on market instruments to raise funds and provides public goods using
a cross-subsidy principle. As a result the regime is based on the market mode of order, utilizing land
prices as means of controlling the production of public amenities rather than values of equity and
principles of planning. Going from predominantly government control or hierarchical mode to market
control of the delivery of public amenities is a shift to the other extreme, making the delivery of public
amenities vulnerable to market fluctuations.
The new liberal regime is based on the concept of consensus building and accommodation of interests
of those actors whose entitlements are recognized by the regime. Entitlement is created in the process
of negotiations; thus, the framework itself is exclusionary in practice. Such room for negotiations
makes the regulatory framework a political process. Poor sections of society continue to depend on the
ability of political parties, developers and NGOs to ensure their inclusion. This is a surprising
continuation from the earlier state controlled regime, where clientelist forms of relationships were the
primary means of inclusion for the squatters.

In terms of tenure security the liberal regime has allowed many more squatter settlements to realize
security via the slum rehabilitation and resettlement programme. This came more from development of
cheaply acquired lands located on the margins of the city than from In-situ development. The spatial
selectivity of the state in the traditional regime appears to continue with the spatial selectivity by the
liberal coalition, even though the selected place for development has undergone a change. This
strategy of slowly releasing land appears to ensure a continuous supply of opportunities for the
building industry.

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Land prices and TDR prices are a mechanism of control in the liberal regime; they have not replaced
the policymaking responsibility of the state. As a result the land market is controlled and regulated by
a combination of factors. However, decision-making on rules in the liberal regime requires a higher
level of information on land prices and its spatial impacts, given that TDR is not the only fungible
instrument in practice. The regulatory aspect in understanding land markets and fluctuating land prices
still suffers from limitations at the level of government bodies, due to absence of a cadastre and clear
land titles. TDR, FSI and real estate prices are key instruments for designers and planners of urban
development.

New Planning Instruments have been successfully used by the private sector and NGOs in
constructing rehabilitation housing for the project affected persons (PAPs) displaced by the city’s
infrastructure projects. A comparative performance analysis of the NPIs shows that the TDR
instrument performs best in terms of sharing land with the public amenity. AR performs better in
actually delivering the public amenity; however, land sharing with the public amenity is average. In-
situ redevelopment has a low performance on all counts (percentage of land plots acquired, percentage
of private land shared with public amenities and ownership of the public amenities) suggesting a need
to review the instrument. Definitely more plots are acquired using New Planning Instruments by state
and local government—and at a quicker rate—than with the Traditional Planning Instruments.

However, the use of NPIs needs to be put into perspective by including outcomes and impacts of these
NPIs. One outcome of TDR is a spatial preference for developing a certain type of amenity in areas
with specific land prices. The majority of the SRA constructed housing using the TDR instrument
takes place in the ward with the lowest land prices. Further, this ward has already been identified as a
ward with one of the largest squatter settlements as well as high levels of deprivation, as the majority
of the squatter population is from the Dalit community. Thus, the TDR mechanism pushes the poor
and project displaced people (pavement dwellers, railroad dwellers and others) into one pre-selected
section of the city, thus continuing the class and caste-based geographical segregation of the city.
Providing large outputs, such as a large number of housing units for PAPs, can be seen as creating
equality for a large number of former shack dwellers who now are homeowner. However, it is
accompanied by the negative externality of high-density upper class housing in western coastal
suburbs of the city. This has resulted in growing protests from the upper middle class who view this
building boom as aggressively reshaping their neighbourhood. Key negative externalities of NPIs are:

• Increased land prices, fragmentation and homelessness in the city.

• Competition among landowners and builders causing conflicts.
• NPIs are strongly exclusionary and shape the character of the city
• The new land instruments build on existing land prices, which in combination with political
manipulations of rules, creates clusters of PAP housing in low priced areas of the city, with
poor basic environmental services.

Undesirable outputs include concentration of ghettoization, social class conflicts, more projects stuck
in a stalemate, increased privately sponsored violence in slum communities, and increased competition
amongst private builders for development of slum areas, and displacement of shack dwellers. The
relative ease of generating NPIs (e.g., providing TDR certificates as compensation to the private sector
either for land or construction) has made it possible for the elite of the city to realize their vision of the
city as a global city. It provided a fungible instrument without disturbing the capital markets or
levying new taxes. Relocating PAPs in newly constructed TDR housing has made relocation and
displacement an accepted phenomenon of Mumbai; displacing one community to accommodate
another is justified by the vision of the city by the political elite.
This process of including some and excluding other households of low-income communities is
responsible for splintering of communities. This splintering of geographies and habitat impacts social
cohesion and collective services in such communities. The splintering process is not viewed by the
interviewed sections of the community as a positive process.

211
NGOs and housing rights movements have been able to include those groups of squatters who were
not recognized as rightful beneficiaries of the city’s services and amenities, i.e. those living on
pavements or railroads. However, as the rules for the resettlement are set by the state (in terms of cut-
off dates) and the market (in terms of location of resettlement sites), NGOs have a limited impact.
Thus NGOs are able to include a section of those excluded by urban development but still are bound
by the rules set by the state and the market. While a section of the homeless did manage to secure land
tenure, this study and others show that sections of those resettled continue to be excluded by projects
of the liberal regime, and the clearing of squatted lands for construction projects of the liberal regime
results in additional homeless on the streets.

NPIs are able to provide housing and land tenure security for a section of the relocated community,
but there is an unintended negative consequence of this improvement: a negative impact on
employment. Thus, for every gain the households make with regards to housing security, an equal or
higher trade-off is made vis-à-vis previous livelihoods activities.

The fragmentation appears in three different sub-groups: (1) those who benefit, (2) those who are in
the process or in the transition period of benefiting, and (3) those who have been excluded. These
clusters are not completely exclusive or cut off from each other, but retain old identities of being one
community. The degree of fragmentation and its impact on social cohesion and coping mechanisms of
households in NPI projects needs further study.

The strengths of the author’s original conceptual framework lie in its recognition of sectoral
parameters, actors and their resources and the possibility of multiple coalitions that can compete with
each other. These aspects brought in sectoral particularities along with the focus on actors and their
networks. These aspects lend themselves well to the study of development regimes of Mumbai.
The model includes several new features. These include context factors, such as the clear
transformational moment needed to frame a new urban regime, as well as the role of political parties.
They also include process features, such as the negotiation processes in which brokers hold different
positions at different levels and also professionals (such as architects) act as brokers at different levels
of government. Multiple interfaces need to be recognized when interventions and practices are being
negotiated: at the community level, administrative ward level, city and state level. The locations for
these interfaces include courtrooms, assembly halls, and at election time the entire city becomes an
interface space. This study also found that policies are earlier practices that already existed informally,
sometimes in violation of earlier policies. Policymaking processes formalize these informal practices
by formulating new regulations and allocating resources to support them. This emphasizes the
necessity of examining informal processes, experiments and practices in the shadow of official
organizations.

On the basis of the findings of this study, the author recommends the use of the ACF framework with
some additional improvements. The recommended framework for studying urban policy regimes in
India ought to include the following features:

5) A time scale as extra dimension in studying policymaking processes, in relation to the

institutional opportunities for including the voice of hitherto excluded social groups.
6) Space and institutional scale are necessary for analysing policy outcomes.
7) The study of institutions formed as a result of policy changes needs to be included as a
type of policy outcome.
8) The importance of studying outcomes has already been stated; outcomes should be
grounded in humanistic goals applicable to all residents irrespective of class, caste,
citizenship, age or gender.

212
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