Slums to be rehabilitated; waterfront to be used as tourist, entertainment zone
Mumbai : Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Shipping and Transport, announced that he is working on his action plan for developing Mumbai’s eastern waterfront to create public amenities by opening up the surplus land in the port area and the shipping ministry has already swung into action. Gadkari gave the details at the Maritime India Summit 2016 here today.
Gadkari said the plan is to use the idle Mumbai Port Trust’s huge land bank of over 1000 acres and waterfront to attract tourists. Mumbai Port’s core and loss-making cargo business is facing intense competition from newer neighbouring Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Maharashtra and Mundra Port in Gujarat. He said that the slums on the port land will be resettled, and on the land freed up, amenities will be created for the city.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””] Plan is to build a cruise terminal at the port for passengers and sea planes, a 500-room floating hotel, four floating restaurants, museums, commercial centres and a floating helipad. There may be 3 to 4 towers for financial institutions, a convention centre and an entertainment zone as well Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Shipping and Transport[/alert]
He said the plan is to build a cruise terminal at the port for passengers and sea planes, a 500-room floating hotel, four floating restaurants, museums, commercial centres and a floating helipad. There may be 3 to 4 towers for financial institutions, a convention centre and an entertainment zone as well. He also mentioned constructing a Mumbai Eye modelled after the London Eye near the sea.
Already a report has been prepared by a panel headed by former MbPT chairman Rani Jadhav and consisting urban planners, architects and government officials. The report is a blueprint of how nearly 1,000 of the total 1,800 acres of MbPT land can be opened up for public amenities such as green spaces, walkways and a waterfront, among other things. The panel had asked citizens for suggestions before submitting its report to Gadkari in December 2014. However there are certain issues that need to be considered before the details of the report are disclosed to the public.
Speaking on the occasion Gadkari said “I have got the report. But we have decided that based on its recommendations, the MbPT must prepare an action plan and submit it to the Cabinet for approval. Once the Cabinet approves, the plan will be implemented. We are not going to give any of Mumbai Port Trust’s land parcel to private builders for development, we’ll do it ourselves. We are currently discussing the plan with international consultants.
The newly appointed MbPT chairman Sanjay Bhatia has been assigned responsibility of creating the action plan. Based on the report the committee submitted, the MbPT will decide what it can do and prepare a plan on how to carry this out.” Shipping secretary Rajiv Kumar said “This is a decision of the Union cabinet. The cabinet has decided that Mumbai, Kandla and a few other ports must come up with a policy to develop their land in a holistic manner. Hence, rather than the ministry deciding what must be done, we have let the ports come up with their own policies.”
The idea to convert the deserted eastern 28 kilometre waterfront, into the tourist destination has been in the works for really long and it appears Mumbai is all set to make merry with a beautiful waterfront in some years from now.
