BMC Proposal To Convert Malabar Hill Garden Plots Sparks Open Space Loss Fears

Mumbai: In yet another blow to Mumbai’s vanishing open spaces, the BMC has proposed converting two garden-reserved plots measuring 15.89 sq m and 41.43 sq m in Malabar Hill into residential reservations, while a football ground at Bandra Reclamation in Bandra West is set to be redesignated as an exhibition centre. The proposal has drawn sharp concern over the BMC shrinking Mumbai’s already scarce open and recreational spaces.

As per the proposal before the Improvement Committee, applicant Dipali Goenka Balakrishna Goenka, through authorised signatory Sanjeev Jhurani, approached the state Urban Development Department in February 2025 seeking deletion of the garden reservation and restoration of residential status. The BMC said the plots were originally part of the residential zone under Development Plan (DP) 1991, but were brought under garden reservation in DP 2034 after being inadvertently included in a larger reservation mapped on adjoining reclaimed coastal land.

The civic body further noted that the combined area is under 1,000 sq m, making reservation adjustment under Development Control and Promotion Regulation 2034 unfeasible, and said the land is currently being used as an access passage and covered parking for adjoining properties. The BMC has also moved to redesignate a football ground at Bandra Reclamation as an exhibition centre, reviving a long-pending proposal for a convention complex at the site. The land, owned by Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), is currently reserved as a playground/sports ground under DP 2034 and is being used as a football field, with the Mumbai Football Association also allotted the plot.

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The civic body said the site was originally earmarked for a convention complex in the 1983 Bandra Reclamation layout, but was redesignated as a sports ground in DP 2034 due to its existing use. If approved, nearly 8,450 sq m of playground and sports ground reservation will be converted, further fuelling concerns over the loss of Mumbai’s scarce recreational spaces. The BMC has moved separate proposals under Section 37(1) of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966, to alter the DP 2034 reservations. After approval by the civic Improvements Committee, suggestions and objections will be invited from the public, followed by hearings before the proposals are forwarded to the state Urban Development Department for final approval.

Meanwhile, environmental activist Zoru Bhathena launched a sharp attack on the proposal, calling it an “open loot” of Mumbai’s green spaces. “The government seems to believe every open space must be commercialised. What they are doing is completely wrong, and we will fight to save these open spaces,” he said. Another activist Vinod Gholap said, "Mumbai is already starved of open spaces, yet the civic body continues to chip away at the little that remains. Converting gardens and playgrounds into residential or commercial reservations is nothing short of institutionalised destruction of public spaces. Once these open spaces are lost, they are gone forever.”

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