Redevelopment of Industrial Land in Urban Areas: A Case Study of Textile Mill Land Redevelopment in Mumbai
Redevelopment of Industrial Land in Urban Areas: A Case Study of Textile Mill Land Redevelopment in Mumbai
Redevelopment of Industrial Land in Urban Areas: A Case Study of Textile Mill Land Redevelopment in Mumbai
1. INTRODUCTION
Now it is well recognized that industries play a very important role in the
economic development of nations, regions as well as cities. Ancient historical
records clearly express that human societies have conveniently moved from
villages to towns with an expansion of economic base from agriculture based
activity to industry and enterprise activity. Such organization is also founded on
the principles of economic efficiency i.e. the industrial production could be
maximized and trade can be undertaken with neighboring cities, regions and
countries when all the activities are conveniently located at a short distance
from each other i.e. transport and other information related costs are less.
From the cradles of river basin civilizations, industries have played an important
role in the shaping up of the society and its progress, particularly towards
urbanization and modernization.
In the modern era, the organization of industry is not based on the organization
of human skills alone but also based on several factors that affect their operations
like technology, capital, access, knowledge, vicinity to logistics/market,
competition, etc. Therefore, industries are becoming very agile in their
manufacturing operations as well as their supply/distributional chains. However,
industrial operations are inevitably exposed to a variety of risks arising out of
the market conditions, technological changes and disappearance of the
advantages over a period of time. These render the industrial operations either
becoming obsolete or scale down over a period of time. Moreover, economic
and financial factors as well as government policy play an important role in the
Ramakrishna Nallathiga, is Knowledge Manager (Infrastructure & Environment) Urban
Management Resource Group, Hyderabad (AP). Email: krishnram_n@cgg.gov.in
Ramakrishna Nallathiga 95
It may appear as though land use changes and development takes place
automatically in a city and new economic activities find place immediately. But
this requires changes to be approved by the city planning authority and the city
development plan has to make provisions for the same in order that such
change takes place. In several cities, this does not happen with mere application
for land use change and development on it; the whole process is ridden with
great complexities and huge uncertainty gets built in the course of time. Some
of the industrial uses have in particular been considered by some groups as vital
part of the city and its historical past to be preserved and any redevelopment
of land for other uses is highly contested by people. In fact, many times planners
and development authorities also buy in these arguments and allow no change
in land use and development of land, or even provide disincentives for their
redevelopment, which stifles the economic growth of the city on one hand and
makes it very expensive in spite of no value adding economic activity taking
place on this part of the city space. Mumbai, one of the oldest and historic
Indian cities, presents an experience of the same. This paper first traces the
industrial location policy changes in the metropolitan region of Mumbai, which
is an important aspect of the industrial development in Mumbai. Subsequently,
it analyses Mumbai’s experience of its inability to develop the old textile mill
lands, which forms the focus of this paper. It is in this context that the provisions
of the Charles Correa report are also discussed.
2. BACKGROUND
Mumbai is a major metropolitan city of India with a gigantic population of over
18 million in the urban agglomeration. It is an important city whereby the
private corporate sector is strongly present and is considered as the economic
powerhouse of the country even in the modern era after liberalization. Mumbai
has been the industrial powerhouse of the country since the British. Industrial
activity was the backbone of its economy and that of the whole state of
Maharashtra. It was a prime centre for cotton processing that directly fed into
the cotton mills that were established in the subsequent phases of history.
Industrial activity led by the textile mills has spread across the city with several
large and medium scale industries establishing themselves in the city and its
neighboring areas in the post-independence era. The development plans and
industrial policies of the State made provisions for the same through earmarking
industrial zones for manufacturing, trade and logistics operations. While Bombay
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has shown how to build the enormous potential in industrial production and
become the country’s backbone for industries and economy, the city also faced
difficulties with maintaining the growth and quickly slipping into de-
industrialization path that was also the focus of the state government later.
Concentration of industries and industrialization has also begun to show negative
effects like pollution and congestion, and the demand was coming for moving
the industry to the outer areas.
Mumbai city development plan was first founded in the erstwhile Bombay Plan
of Tatas but the government has formally started it with the enactment of
Maharashtra Town and Country Planning Act, 1966. The Mumbai Metropolitan
Region Plan (1970-1991) was the first plan prepared under the act which came
into effect from 16 August 1973. This plan indicated the policy to be followed
for the location of industries in the region and provided for review of this
policy. The revised regional plan 1996-2011 has taken forward the concept of
‘decongestion of population’ of island city further to identify the major nodes
in the suburbs that could act as potential CBDs, resulting in lesser and lesser
population commuting upto the Nariman Point CBD. Yet, it has completely
overlooked the potential industrial decongestion in the form of textile mills
relocation (and land release), and it rather confined to light and medium
engineering industries. It therefore also points out to the fact that this subject
has been considered as a contentious issue in which the local government and
local land policies were not willing to take any side but left to state government
decision makers (bureaucrats and politicians) or courts of appropriate or higher
jurisdiction came into picture as the decisions became contentious. Therefore
redevelopment was not automatic as in other countries whereby the countries
may have more uniform and coherent policies or the will of government to
undertake the same.
The basic approach of the new industrial location policy has been to address the
issues of declining employment in Mumbai and its suburbs, need for
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The Industrial location policy was subsequently formulated its Industry, Trade
and Commerce Policy in 1995 by the state government. It has laid down the
restriction norms for the location of various categories of industries (the
restrictions are shown in Table 1). The industries were classified into four
categories for the purposes of location in the MMR:
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Source: MMRDA
policy was made applicable to all industries in MMR except Cotton Textile
Industries, godowns, service industries and service industrial estates. The
locational clearance was subject to the Union Ministry and State Pollution
Control Board as well as the provisions under the Regional Plan for Mumbai
Metropolitan Region, which laid down development zones and development
control regulations applicable to land for industrial purposes.
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Till the late seventies, the Cotton Textile Mills were booming with activity. But
in 1982 things changed. The unorganized power looms sector had taken over
and it was becoming uneconomical to maintain large scale industrial units within
the city limits on account of high power and octroi costs. Moreover, the 18
month long crippling strike by the mill workers proved to be the final nail in the
coffin. All this led to huge losses and the running of the Cotton Textile Mills
became unviable. Several mills were declared sick and a few even shut down
their operations. Only a few managed to survive. It is important to note that
the textile mills constituted an important component of the manufacturing
industry in Mumbai, which was the backbone of Mumbai’s economy till eighties.
There were 58 cotton textile mills in Mumbai. Of these, 26 were deemed ‘sick’
and, therefore, taken over by the Government of India. The remaining 32 mills
continued in the private sector.
The sick textile mills were proposing to sell off part or whole of their land for
quite some years, allowing the redevelopment of the land. At the same time,
the Development Control Regulations (DCRs) of 1991 sought regulating the
redevelopment of cotton textile mill lands so as to generate open spaces and
public housing for the city in a manner which would create coherent urban
Table 2 Some Key Statistics of the Textile Mills under NTC
Description
Number 28
Land Area (Ha) 71.85
Mill Workers 18,536
Area per Worker (sq m) 39
Developable Plot Area / (Floor Space Area) (sq m), of which 567,718 / (755,065)
• Open Space (BMC) 189,239 / (189,239)
• MHADA, PSU and Housing 189,239 / (251,688)
• Commercial Exploitation 189,239 / (503,377)
Employment Generation in Residential Area (No.s) 3,356
Employment Generation in Office/Industry/Shops (No.s) 25,169
form. However, contrary to these intentions, several mills have closed down
their operations, resulting in insecurity among labor on one hand, and piecemeal
redevelopment of land on the other. In short, wherever redevelopment of land
has taken place in mill areas, it has proved to be haphazard and totally commercial
in nature.
• As a first step, the Study Group had appointed teams of architects, engineers
and conservationists to visit the mill lands and appraise as well as document
the various structures and other prominent features in each of them. The
Study Group then strategized the development of disposable textile mill
land by dividing into three equal parts i.e. (one-third each for public housing
to be developed by MHADA, open spaces and public amenities, and the
textile mills);
• The report gave detailed plans including drawings for the redevelopment of
land in textile mills in the case of 28 mills under the NTC. These mills were
visited by the Study team and the structures have been graded by the
suitability or adaptability of buildings as well as the structural conditions of
the buildings;
• It identified a triangular area between Matulya, Paragaon and Mumbai Mills,
a sort of ‘Golden Triangle’, for mutually beneficial redevelopment of the
mill area. Since three major arterial roads – Senapati Bapat Marg, N.M.
Joshi Marg and Dr. Ambedkar Road – were located in the area, redevelopment
of the area would provide scope for improving the capacity of road as well
as rail network. Similarly, it proposed the development of pedestrian plazas
in front of the railway stations, shopping arcades for pedestrians along road
lines, and also development of inter-modal junctions;
• Several old existing mill structures were not only memorable and valuable to
be included in the ‘heritage’ list’, but were also found to be robust enough
to be recycled for modern services like studios and offices. Recycling of
such mill lands will lead to the creation of a city centre with distinctive
character, vitality and ambience, which adds another dimension to this vital
metropolis. Therefore, the committee recommended designation of buildings
by Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and recycling them to
accommodate studios and offices;
• In order to contain indiscriminate springing up of high rise buildings and
their vitiating of urban form, the Group suggested providing larger ground
coverage while achieving the same FSI. However, to facilitate the
comprehensive planning for the redevelopment of the private mills land,
particularly in the Golden Triangle, the Study Group suggested provision of
incentives through additional FSI up to 2, as it had been done in the case of
Bandra-Kurla complex. This would lead to the development of energy efficient
construction and also use of building facades to help define the streetscape,
which would create visible landmarks and would set in motion regeneration
of the Parel area;
• The Group also proposed that the development of public open spaces varying
in size from large maidans to small neighbourhood parks should be developed
so that a variety of different open-air activities could take place. Moreover,
the integration of this with other objectives like pedestrian movement and
tree development alongside the roads would result in transformation of this
area into a pattern of green area in the centre of the city. Moreover, it
recommended that the land designated for open spaces could also be used
for other social facilities like schools, clinics or community centers depending
upon the needs of the neighbourhood;
• Current DCRs stipulate utilization of TDRs against surrendering of the land
to BMC for infrastructure and to MHADA for housing in the suburbs. The
Study Group, however, sought utilization of development rights on the plot
itself in case of surrendering of land for infrastructure. In addition, it also
sought stipulation of the land surrendered to the MHADA to be used for
reconstruction of dilapidated buildings or redevelopment of slums only.
Moreover, it also suggested that the MHADA to sub-contracts the construction
of residences by providing specifications rather than by undertaking
construction itself;
• The Group proposed allowing some of the developable land to be used for
new high-tech non-polluting industries like computers and garment industry.
This would result in the generation of a number of semi-skilled and unskilled
jobs which would be equal to or more than those provided at present by the
mills. Moreover, the semi-skilled jobs could be much higher if the support
activities spring up from the multiplier effect of development of these
industrial units. The 1993 Industrial Location Policy allowed development of
such industries in the Island City of Mumbai;
• While seeking curbs on piecemeal development of land, the study sought
the private mills to prepare an Outline Development Proposal (ODP) comprising
of (i) map showing the area with road network, (ii) a plan showing existing
structures (including heritage structures), and (iii) land allocation for the
three purposes mentioned earlier along with an outline of the built form.
This plan would be reviewed by a committee specially appointed by the
Government for this purpose. The directives for the Committee should be
mandatory for developing the ODP into a detailed proposal; and
• In the outlook for more comprehensive redevelopment of urban land, the
Study Group also suggested large scale pooling up of land and its allocation
to appropriate uses. The private sector mills could be encouraged to form a
financial umbrella organization that would allow such regeneration. It also
sought addressing of the other problem areas like chawl reconstruction,
housing for the shelter less, parking of inter-city buses, repairs and
reconstruction of old buildings while avoiding provisions under Rent Control
Act and MHADA Act. It essentially outlined the need for comprehensive
urban renewal plan for the Byculla-Parel- Dadar area.
The Study Group also noted that the key factor in the process of achieving this
comprehensive redevelopment is the availability of finance. It identified the
immediate financial needs of the textile mills to:
It sought facilitation of land laws that act as encumbrances for the free
movement of industries and sought provision of finance to the mills through
creation of corpus. The corpus was sought to be prepared through a consortium
of banks and financial institutions. Further, it suggested advance trading on FSI
may be allowed to facilitate the generation of funds for this purpose. Alternatively,
a separate financial institution could be set up for the purpose of fund generation.
mills land began to be spelt out with the new Development Control Rules (DCR)
for the city, framed in 1991. These rules permitted the sale of a portion of the
mill land in order to channel funds into the revival of the mills. These funds
were to be used for clearing off financial liabilities of the mill owners like
workers wages, VRS, retiring loans, etc. According to the DCR 58, in the case
of redevelopment, entire mill land (either open or after demolition of existing
structures) has to be distributed as follows:
Most of the private mills found the regulations of the DCR 58(1991) onerous
and refused to go that way. Modifications to the original DCR were sought and
in 2001 the government tabled an amendment to the DCR 58 (1991). According
to the new rules, only ‘open land’ on which there was no construction was to be
distributed in the manner laid down in the DCR 58 (1991). As a result of this
policy change, a number of defunct private mill owners made a beeline to the
civic authorities to have their plans for redevelopment passed and approved.
Development of the sprawling mill lands in Central Mumbai provided momentum
with BMC officially giving the green signal for the redevelopment plans of more
than 15 private mills.
Further redevelopment of mill lands was also sought by the NTC who looked at
selling 17 of its 25 mills in Mumbai and a proposal for the same was put forward
to the BMC. In principle, the state government policy (DCR 58 2001) regarding
the mill lands sale seeks to divide the land equally for commercial purposes,
low-income housing and open spaces so that two – thirds is handed over for
public interest. But in reality, this policy failed to achieve its purpose. This
became quite clear when NTC put forward its proposal to dispose its mills in
Central Mumbai.
According to the new provision, the NTC mill land coming to BMC and MHADA is
a mere 38 acres when the total area of all the NTC mills combined is approximately
300 acres. Civic activists and architects tried to block the proposal as they
believed that the city was entitled to a higher share of the mill lands. Mills have
been seen as a rare and exciting opportunity for planned development in the
city and few were ready to let it go. After a gap of more than a year (late
2004), the NTC was granted the permission by BMC for sale of seven NTC units
in Mumbai and NTC decided to go ahead with the same. Shortly, thereafter, a
public body approached the government saying that the ongoing mill land
development was leading to overcrowding, haphazard planning and reduction
of open space in the city. There was a general demand to re-look at the DCR 58
(2001) and bring changes.
Ensuing this controversy and chiefly to defer the sale of NTC and other private
mill lands, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the legality of the 2001
amendment to the DCR 58 (2001) was filed in the Bombay High Court in
February 2005. A stay was sought on permissions being granted for further
development under this rule and those pending clearances. The main contention
was that the amendment is a major modification, which must be preceded by
proper study and planning.
The NTC has also got an approval for development of seven of its mills from the
Supreme Court. All clearances had been obtained by the NTC from the
Maharashtra Government and BMC for the sale and redevelopment of seven of
its mill lands. In an interesting move, the BMC and the State Government have
accepted the seven mills as consolidated property when calculating the reservation
for open spaces and public housing. While five mills are to be sold, the remaining
two are to be handed over to the government authorities. The sale of five NTC
mills will provide an additional development potential of approximately 3 million
sq ft of space in the Central Mumbai real estate market.
7. CONCLUSIONS
It has been argued that the release of textile mill land has created a positive
environment for development and reduced uncertainty in property markets,
both of which led to improved performance of local markets in the border of
CBD and suburbs. The property markets started functioning better as evident
from property vacancies and this made other economic agents to react in a
positive manner. Also larger changes in national and local economies after
liberalization led to the emergence of Mumbai’s new position of financial hub
that led to investment inflows – FDI and FII. These economic forces have been
driving local demand for property, which has the properties of both investment
and consumption good. Such strong forces of demand would have led to optimism
in the outcomes and hence made a strong case for possessing property, which
would give both consumption benefit and any expected surplus returns over and
above the costs of holding it. Therefore, changes in industrial land redevelopment
is not only changing the physical and landscape contours of city but also underlying
changes in property values, local economy and values.
REFERENCES
Frank, K. (2005) Mumbai Cotton Textile Mills, Research Report, Knight Frank India Ltd.,
Mumbai.
Government of Maharashtra (1998) Modifications of Industrial Location Policy in Mumbai
Metropolitan Region, Government Resolution, Government of Maharashtra, Mumbai.
Government of Maharashtra (1996) Report of the Expert Group on Development of Textile
Mill land (also known as Charles Correa Committee Report), Government of Maharashtra,
Mumbai.
MMRDA (1996) Regional Plan for Mumbai Metropolitan Region 1996-2011, Mumbai
Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Mumbai.