Out of breath

The shanties in Yamuna Pushta are packed tight. A dusty and torn curtain hangs over the entrance to Sabina's house. Trunks and cupboards leave little space for Sabina and her family. A kabadiwala has spread his polythene bags and plastic ware at their doorstep. A neighbour's goats roam nearby.

Will future cities be friendly?

It is rather naive to delink urbanisation from the rising lifestyle aspirations and the imperatives of economic development. Opportunities, power and prestige are some of the irresistible attributes of the growing urban centres which attract migrants on a large scale. In India economic liberalisation and urbanisation have become complimentary to each other. Although the wave of urbanisation is sweeping the entire Asian subcontinent and giving it the kind of preeminence that Europe and North America enjoyed due to their industrial socio-economic set up, it is India and China which are drawing attention. It is estimated that by 2025 around 2.5 billion Asians will turn city dwellers which will be nearly 54 per cent of the world’s urban population.

Spanner on Mumbai's free floor space project

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) project to provide free floor space index (FSI) to builders creating public parking slots has gone all wrong. The builders are exploiting the project to fill their coffers.

Letters

THE STALK EXPERIENCE

Near ready for take-off

The Union environment ministry is all set to approve the Navi Mumbai international airport. The ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) recommended clearance to the airport on November 10 subject to conditions.

More hurdles for Navi Mumbai airport

The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forest has asked the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO) to re-examine the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the proposed airport in Navi Mumbai. It has also asked CIDCO to conduct fresh studies on the suitability of alternative sites.

Navi Mumbai airport hanging in air

AS MAHARASHTRA government pushes for Navi Mumbai as the only site for Mumbai's second airport, the environment ministry has asked for re-examination of three alternative sites. The ministry's expert appraisal committee (EAC) had expressed concerns over the project, saying it would lead to destruction of 121 hectares (ha) of mangroves, levelling of an 80-metre-high hill and diversion of two rivers.

Navi Mumbai appraisal

The project is a CRZ site It will destroy mangroves, divert two rivers and level a hill State and project promoter say no alternative sites but EAC believes otherwise EAC says weightage given to criteria not equal for all sites Baseline EIA data substandard, says EAC Project promoter, says EAC, must re-evaluate three other sites

Tribals won’t budge

SEVERAL people living in Patyachapaani, a tribal hamlet inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in suburban Mumbai, have been mauled by leopards in recent years. But they do not want to shift and are protesting the forest department's plan to relocate them in the forest fringe.

Fund crunch hits Mumbai Metro

MUMBAI's Metro rail project has hit a roadblock. The regional planning authority, executing the project, is facing shortage of funds.