A development plan for Aarey

The Development Plan 2034 and the Proposed Land Use for Aarey Milk Colony has enveloped the whole city in a frenzy. It has come as a shock that the Proposed Land Use (PLU) for Aarey has been changed from Primary Activity, which is essentially dairy and fodder-growing grasslands to a residential and commercial zone. In layman terms, it means that most of the land in Aarey Milk Colony will now be available to develop towers like those on both sides of the Filmcity Road or to build malls and commercial complexes.
This has been objected by every strata of the society in Mumbai—those who stay in the vicinity, those who reside far from Aarey and even those who stay in other cities but have spent time in Aarey in the past. The media has been very supportive and has echoed the sentiments of Mumbai's citizens.

Members of the Save Aarey group have been carrying out a campaign against specific projects, which will damage the fabric of Aarey but are faced with the hurricane called Development Plan 2034. It has emerged that the projects may have been planned in a manner to assist what was to finally be presented in the Development Plan.
The Development Plan needs to be understood from the perspective of those, who stay within Aarey Milk Colony and from the larger perspective of Mumbai city. Over the past three decades, almost 1,00,000 people reside within Aarey Milk Colony. So the area not only includes rolling hills, forests, grasslands, biodiversity and dairy units. Almost all of these residents have a photo pass, ration card or voting card and hence cannot be considered to be staying illegally. They are legitimate stakeholders in the future of Aarey Milk Colony. Hence, looking at the current efforts to preserve Aarey only through the lens of clean air and ecology would be incorrect.

A fundamental question presented itself in the first community meeting four days ago with a number of representatives from various housing clusters within Aarey Milk Colony. The question being, what exactly is a Development Plan and how do we understand what is written in the 64-page Executive Summary and the main report which is 500 pages long? Since a Development Plan is about land use, everybody associated with land—developers, estate agents, government officials dealing with land and policies governing its use and of course, the politicians all understand it very well. But is the Development Plan meant for them alone?

In the same community meeting, we heard tales of woe such as, there are no streetlights in the internal roads of Aarey, the public bus service is so patchy that school children can take two hours to reach home after school. Sanitation facilities are poor, community toilets are in a bad condition and building a self-contained toilet inside the house involves so much corruption that the toilet becomes more costly than the dwelling unit. For those who know Aarey as the Aarey Road for passing through, it is the worst road in the city with bad surface quality and no streetlights at night. So should we be changing the ambit of a Development Plan from just looking into land use and taking more holistic efforts to ensure real development in the lives of its inhabitants?

It is very late but still good to know that residents of Mumbai have started spending some time in understanding basic policies and policy instruments, which govern the quality of life in this city; whether it is the transport policy, which is seeing steep hikes in BEST fares or the Development Plan 2034. All these policies and issues determine common experiences such as why the areas near railway stations or the Western Express Highway are in a perpetual traffic jam. All Development Plan documents are available on the MCGM website. Please take some time and go through them.
On Wednesday, CM Devendra Fadnavis met with activists regarding the Aarey metro project. Rishi shares, "We were really hoping that at least the CM would show some enthusiasm regarding this sensitive topic. However, we were disappointed as all that he said was that he will look into it. It was a two-minute meeting and we are hoping to schedule another meeting with him where we can elaborate on why we are protesting.