CRAMPED FOR ROOM

CRAMPED FOR ROOMMumbai’s land woes

About a City

The story of Mumbai, its journey from seven sparselyinhabited islands to a thriving urban metropolis hometo 14 million people, traced over a thousand years.

Land Reclamation – Modes & Methods

A description of the various reclamation techniquescurrently in use.

Land Mafia

Why land in Mumbai is more expensive than anywherein the world.

The Way Out

Where Mumbai is headed, a pointer to the future.

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I n T h i s I s s u e

ARTICLES AND DESIGN BY AKSHAY VIJ

PHO

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A PICTURE OF CONGESTION

The Brabourne Stadium, and in

the background the Ambassador

Hotel, seen from atop the Hilton

Towers at Nariman Point.

COVER PAGE

In the absence of open maidans

in which to play, gully cricket

seems to have become Mumbai’s

favourite sport.

THE GATEWAY OF INDIA, AND IN THE BACKGROUND

BOMBAY PORT.

About a CityTHE STORY OF MUMBAI

Seven islands. Septuplets - seven unborn babies,waddling in a womb. A womb that we know moreordinarily as the Arabian Sea. Tied by a thin vestige ofearth and rock – an umbilical cord of sorts – to themotherland. A kind mother. A cruel mother. A motherthat has indulged as much as it has denied. A motherthat has typically left the identity of the father in doubt.Like a whore.

To speak of fathers who have fought for the right tosire: with each new pretender has come a new name.The babies have juggled many monikers, reflected inthe schizophrenia the city seems to suffer from. TheKoli fishermen were the first to lay claim. From thempossibly comes the present name of the city, derivedfrom a shrine to the goddess Mumbadevi. The Kolis havesurvived unobtrusively in small pockets along theshoreline while the city has grown up, grown apart.

From the 6th to the 13th century, the islands served ashome to several Hindu dynasties, most famously thatof the Yadava king Bhimdev who made his capital atMahikawati, familiar to us as Mahim. The Mohmeddansof Gujarat annexed the islands in 1343, bringing withthem the beautiful Haji Ali Mosque and the religion ofIslam. The Portuguese dropped anchor in 1508, andwere quick to snatch the islands away from theSultanate. They dubbed the deep natural harbour BomBahia – Good Bay. The islands were of little more utilityto the Portuguese than as a weekend getaway, apparentfrom their alternative name for the archipelago: A Ilhada Boa Vida, or The Island of Good Life.

In 1661, Catherine de Braganza, the Portugueseprincess, married King Charles II of England and themain island of Bombay came to the British as part ofdahej. After some initial Portuguese resistance, theBritish in 1665 took control over the other six islands ofthe archipelago, as well as the large northern island ofSalsette. The city’s name was anglicized to Bombay.The name persisted for several centuries, till of coursethe Hindu nationalist party - the Shiv Sena, led by thedemagogical Balasaheb Thackeray, came to power.Thackeray in a superficial quest for roots revived thenomenclatural battle, and the city has ended where itbegan, albeit a little bigger, a little larger. The city hasstopped at Mumbai.

4 YELLOW | JUL - DEC 2007

The original Bombay archipelago, prior to thereclamations

GRANT ROAD

NAMED AFTER ROBERT GRANT, GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY FROM

1835 TO 1839, ONE OF THE MOST DENSELY POPULATED

NEIGHBOURHOODS IN THE CITY. ALSO HOME TO KAMATHIPURA –MUMBAI’S INFAMOUS RED LIGHT DISTRICT.

Directors served him with a notice of suspension.Hornby, or so goes the legend, calmly pocketed thenotice and carried on with the implementation of hisscheme until he was forced to hand over charge to hissuccessor.

The Hornby Vellard, despite all the trouble that itlanded up poor Hornby in, provided Bombay with somebadly needed room for expansion. 400 acres of landwere made habitable, and the city was allowed tooverflow its Fort boundaries. Civic amenities wereimproved, a ferry service was commenced betweenBombay and Thane in 1776, new markets were built,and the city’s drainage dramatically improved. Theprecincts of Mahalaxmi, Kamathipura and Tardeo weresettled. Reclamations and causeway buildingcontinued apace. In 1803 Bombay was connected with

First BirthFirst BirthFirst BirthFirst BirthFirst Birth

Mumbai as we know the city was born when the BritishCrown leased out the islands to the East IndiaCompany at an annual “farm-rent” of 10 pounds, tobe paid in gold! The Company was headquartered atSurat and was in need of a deeper port that wouldallow larger ships to dock. Trade was booming andSurat couldn’t cope. Bombay, with its naturally safeharbour and strategic location on the western coast,was perfect.

The city began as a fortified outpost. Most of thepopulation was concentrated on the main island ofBombay, in the area that we call now simply as Fort.Work on the Fortification was initiated in 1715 by thenGovernor Charles Boone, who also oversaw theconstruction of the St Thomas Cathedral, from wherecomes the name Churchgate (the battlements mayhave disappeared but the name has stayed). Theharbour needed strengthening. The first Parsi arrivedto the city in the form of Lowjee Nusserwanji, a foremanfrom the Company’s shipyard at Surat, invited toBombay to build war ships for the town’s defense.Much of the 18th century was spent in establishingfirmer control over the island, and in repelling invadingparties sent by the Maratha kingdoms to the north.

Coming of AgeComing of AgeComing of AgeComing of AgeComing of Age

The city had begun to grow. The southern island ofBombay was witness to a steady stream of migrantsfrom the hinterland who made their home within theFort area. The Englishmen lived in the southern partof the Fort while the Indian migrants organizedthemselves into colonies in the north. However,increasing congestion compelled the Company toundertake the project of connecting the seven isles.In 1782, William Hornby, acting as Governor,commenced Bombay’s first real engineering project –the Hornby Vellard.

Near the northern base of Malabar Hill in the areaknown as Breach Candy, there once stood a GreatBreach that separated Malabar Hill from the northernisland of Worli. Hornby proposed to the Directors ofthe East India Company that the sea be shut out atits opening at Breach Candy, in order to make thelow-lying land known as the Flats (ordinarilyinundated during high tide) habitable. The proposal,costing an estimated one lakh rupees, was deemedtoo expensive and rejected. City myth says that Hornbyproceeded with the project, unfazed by the refusal.18 months before his tenure was to run out, the irate

Salsette by a causeway at Sion. Thename Sion comes from the Marathi

word shinva, or boundary – Sion herebeing the boundary between the

islands of Bombay andSalsette. The Causewayconnecting Mahim and

Bandra was completed in1845 at a total cost of one-

and-a-half lakh rupees,donated entirely by Lady

Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy underthe precondition no toll becharged to citizens for its

use by the Government. In1838, the Colaba Causeway

linked Colaba and OldWoman’s Island in the east

to the island of Bombay. Thecity was rapidly evolving

into one single fused landmass. Mumbai was

seemingly coming of age.


JAN - JUL 2007 | YELLOW 7

resulting trade. The Warended in 1865, andalthough there was atemporary recession theeconomy managed torecover, in part due to theopening of the Suez Canalin 1869. By the turn of thedecade, Bombay hadbecome home to 36 cottonmills. The city had trulybeen set on the path toindustrialization.

However, the setting up of mills heralded the arrivalof a vast new population. The island city needed moreroom to house its people. The walls of the Fort heldthe city handcuffed, as a result of which it was decidedin 1862 by Bartle Frere, Governor of Bombay, todismantle the battlements. Vital land in the very coreof the city was freed up and made available fordevelopment. Other schemes were initiated by theBombay Government to contain land scarcity.Reclamations were carried out at Apollo Bunder, ModyBay, Elphinstone Bunder, Mazagaon, Tank Bunderand the Frere reclamation on the eastern shore, andfrom Colaba to the foot of Malabar Hill on the westernshore.

The grandest of these schemes was proposed by theBack Bay Reclamation Company, which intended thereclamation of the entire portion of the Back Bay onthe western foreshore. The Company had been formedduring the boom years of the early 1860’s. However,when the American Civil War ended in 1865, adepression set in and land prices fell. The companywent bankrupt and had to be liquidated. TheGovernment took over the task of completing theCompany’s projects but restricted itself to reclaimingonly a narrow strip of land wide enough to provide forlaying out the tracks from Churchgate station toColaba.

The Back Bay Reclamation fiasco though was only aminor trip-up. Nothing could really impede the city’smarch. Bombay was positively blooming, as was onlytoo apparent from the importance it was beingaccorded by the Crown. No more was the city merelya fortified trading town. It had become, during thecourse of its youth, a symbol of colonial power.Mumbai had arrived.

JUMA MASJID

ISLAM CAME TO MUMBAI IN THE 14TH CENTURY. THE JUMA

MASJID, ONE OF THE CITY’S BIGGEST MOSQUES, LOCATED NEAR

CRAWFORD MARKET, WAS COMPLETED IN 1802.

In the Prime of YouthIn the Prime of YouthIn the Prime of YouthIn the Prime of YouthIn the Prime of Youth

Once the seven islands had been connected there wasno stopping Mumbai’s transformation from tradingpost to industrial centre. Better connectivity betweenthe islands needed to be supplemented with betterlinks with the mainland. On Saturday 16th of April,1853, a 21-mile long railway line, the first in India,between Bombay’s Victoria Terminus and Thane wasopened. Two more lines began operation in 1860 anda regular service of steamers on the west coast wascommenced in 1869. The earliest cloud of black smokesent sailing across the city’s skyline in 1854 by thecity’s first cotton mill was a quiet announcement ofthis impending metamorphosis, abetted in no smallway by significant historic events that happilycoincided in and around that time.

The American Civil War began in 1861. The War lasteda total of five years, during which time ports in thesouthern American states were blockaded. Americawas the English’s main source of cotton, and theopportunity created by the gap in supply was grabbedat with both hands by Bombay’s cotton merchants.Raw cotton grown in Gujarat was shipped toLancashire via Bombay, and several personalfortunes were made during this period from the

MARINE DRIVE

THOUGH OFFICIALLY NETAJI SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE ROAD, THIS MOST

BEAUTIFUL THREE KILOMETER STRETCH OF ASPHALT WAS LAID DOWN AFTER

COMPLETION OF THE BACK BAY RECLAMATIONS DURING THE 1920S.

JUL - DEC 2007 | YELLOW 9

Early GreysEarly GreysEarly GreysEarly GreysEarly Greys

Migrants continued to flock to the city, lusting for jobscreated by new building projects, a booming cottonindustry and flourishing trade with the West. A largeshare of these industries that afforded employmentto the city’s populace were crowded together in thenarrowest part of the island. Congestion was takingits toll. The demand for housing was initially met byprivate entrepreneurs who put up the first of Mumbai’schawls. These single room habitations, occupied byfive to ten persons each, covered in the early part ofthe twentieth century about 75% of the city’s occupiedhouses. Naturally, chawls were commonest in theindustrial areas of Byculla, Parel and Worli, in andaround the cotton mills.

From the very start though, supply was chasingdemand. It was only a matter of time before the firstslum mushroomed in some obscure corner of the city.Public health was on a downslide: the island townfound itself faced with regular outbreaks of influenza,small pox and cholera. The proverb: “Two Monsoonsare the Age of a Man”, was seemingly holding true.What broke the camel’s back though was the outbreakof the dreaded bubonic plague in September 1896.Mumbai’s grey hair were beginning to show.

To check the white from spreading across the city’saging scalp, the Bombay City Improvement Trust wasformally constituted on 9th November, 1898. A needwas felt to direct the expansion of the city towardsthe northern suburbs of Dadar, Matunga, Wadala andSion. Housing projects were commenced. An area ofabout 440 acres of low lying paddy fields in the Dadararea was acquired for the scheme. By the 1920s thecity had swallowed up the suburbs of Kurla Kirol,Trombay, Chembur, Danda, Khar, Andheri,

Ambernath and Chapel Road in Bandra. By the early1930s, town planning schemes had been completedat Bandra, Santa Cruz, Vile Parle, Andheri, Malad,Borivli and Ghatkopar. Mumbai’s parade had in allearnest begun its march northwards.

Simultaneous with the Improvement Trust’s effortsto spread Mumbai northward were the Bombay PortTrust’s forays into the sea. The entire Cuffe Paradearea, all 90,000 square yards of it, was salvaged fromthe western foreshores of Colaba. Reclamation workat Apollo Bunder carried between the years 1915 and1919 gave the city land on which to raise the Gatewayof India, and the adjoining Taj Mahal Hotel. Thedevelopment of the Ballard Estate on the eastern coastentailed the conversion of 22 acres of sea-floodedforeshore into a consciously planned commercialprecinct. The Ballard Estate not only decongested theFort area in terms of office space, it also assumed asymbolic role in representing the city’s mercantilepower in the early decades of the 20th century. Thesecond Back Bay Reclamation Scheme, despite all theaspersions that were cast by the media and the public,and justified though they were (the Back Bay EnquiryCommittee set up in 1926 exposed serious blundersin financial calculations and raised grave doubts overthe credibility of the scheme), despite all thecontroversy and furore, the scheme in the end wonfor the city a total of 439.6 acres of land, land whichnow boasts of the city’s most beautiful stretch of road- a three kilometer long promenade flanked by theocean on one side, lanky palm trees on the other,smelling of salt and pickled childhood memories, aroad that we know more simply as Marine Drive.

The city may have aged, but it had aged with grace.

The Island City over the years: Notice the changing shape of the eastern and southern coastline. Also of interest is the manner in which the city hasspread northward in an attempt to decongest its traditional heart.

Liposuction and BotoxLiposuction and BotoxLiposuction and BotoxLiposuction and BotoxLiposuction and Botox

Partition brought to the city Sindhi migrants fromPakistan. Bombay’s belly swelled from 1.49 million in1941 to 2.3 million by 1951. The demand for housingpeaked in the southern part of the Island. FormerEnglish properties on Malabar Hill and surroundingareas were sold and redeveloped into multi-storeyedblocks of flats by Sindhi and Marwari entrepreneurs.Almost all property in the Dadar-Matunga area hadbeen leased and built over. The neighbourhoods ofNagpada, Grant Road, Bhendi Bazaar and Dongri hadalready achieved densities that the rest of the city iscrumbling under today. If infrastructure were the beltround the city’s waist, then Bombay was about to becaught with its pants down!

The fat needed redistributing; it was time to turn tothe woodlands in the north. The new suburbs ofBandra, Khar, Juhu, Santa Cruz and Andheri cameinto being. Bungalow villas sprouted where there oncestood forest. Sports clubs, gardens and playgroundswere developed by local citizens. Housing societiesflourished. Shacks and cottages were built to serveas weekend retreats. “History was created when inOctober, 1932, the enterprising JRD Tata landed hisPuss Moth on the inaugural flight of Tata Servicesfrom Karachi to Bombay. The memorable event markedthe genesis of India’s national carrier, Air India.” Asair traffic increased, a new international terminal wasbuilt at Santa Cruz, replacing the Juhu aerodrome.The core city was becoming increasingly dependenton the suburbs. Recognition of the fact came officiallyin the form of the Greater Bombay Laws and theBombay High Court Act of 1945, which stretchedmunicipal limits to include the boroughs of Bandra,Parle-Andheri and Kurla together with 42 villages inthe Bombay suburban district.

Liposuction and a shot of botox under those droopingeyelids had evidently done the trick for now, thoughit was only a matter of years before time caught upwith a seemingly laggard Bombay.

Two SonsTwo SonsTwo SonsTwo SonsTwo Sons

The period immediately before and after independencewitnessed the birth of the idea of developing landacross the harbour. The idea, first mooted in 1945 byFoster King, a member of the Indian Institute ofArchitects, wished to decongest the city by movingindustries to the peripheries of Greater Bombay andthrough the creation of a new township at Bassein(Vasai). The idea gained greater currency through the50s, and the lethargy of the various official committeesnotwithstanding, culminated in the publication in1964 of a Development Plan of Greater Bombay, anda few years later of a Regional Plan for the largerMetropolitan Region of Bombay.

The Regional Plan emphasized the need to discourageindustries from locating in Bombay. Furthermore, itproposed a ban on office space in the Fort area andsuggested that commercial activities be located in newcenters like the Bandra-Kurla area in the suburbs.Recognizing the nature of the exploding city, the planmade a case for a ‘multi-nucleated MetropolitanRegion’ with many separate new towns which wouldtake pressure off Bombay from the mass distressmigration that had manifested itself in the 1960s andwas projected to continue for the next few decades.

CENTER ONE MALL, VASHI

NAVI MUMBAI HAS BLOSSOMED INTO A PROSPEROUS CITY,ACCOMMODATING GLOBAL CONSUMPTION ICONS SUCH AS

MCDONALD’S AND NIKE IN SHINY NEW MALLS SUCH AS THIS ONE.

The authors of the Regional Plan - Charles Correa,Pravina Mehta and Shirish Patel - in theirrecommendations gave prominence to King’s idea of a‘Twin City’ on the mainland across the harbour fromthe old. The starting point for this idea was the alreadyplanned extension of Bombay’s port at Nhava Sheva.There were also two industrial zones, Thana-Belapurand Taloja, for which housing and ancillary serviceswould in any case have to be provided and the ThanaCreek Bridge was also under construction. The ideaon which their proposal hinged though was that ofthe State Government moving to New Bombay. Bygetting the Government to shift office the intentionwas to kick-start the city’s growth, as also to get peopleto commute on an east-west axis instead of a north-south axis.

On the mainland then was built the world’slargest ever planned city, spanningan area of about 344 squarekilometers, integrating 95 villagesspread over the districts of Thaneand Raigad. The City andDevelopment Corporation, orCIDCO, was established by theGovernment of Maharashtra in March,1970, specifically to plan and managethe twin city of New Bombay.According to the plan proposed byCIDCO the new city was to comprise20 nodal settlements built along majortransport corridors and to have anultimate population of 2 million. Theintention was to distribute the existingpopulation between the old and thenew city and also to absorb additionalmigration.

However, the precise relationshipbetween the two cities and theiradministrations was never outlined orclearly understood. The Regional Planhad no vision for ‘Old Bombay’, and itsrole vis-à-vis the New Bombay, and thisambiguity in the relationship frustrated

the potential of the old city to rejuvenate itself. Thenew city was not helped by the fact that the StateGovernment never did move to New Bombay, thusdepriving it of the very catalyst that was supposed tospur its growth. Poor transport links between themainland and the island city didn’t aid the causeeither. The reclamations of the 60s and 70s at NarimanPoint exacerbated the problem to the point that by1991, Navi Mumbai had a population of 600,000,scandalously low when compared with the 2 milliontargeted by the Regional Plan.

Politics had played spoilsport. Nariman Point hadstolen Navi Mumbai’s thunder. For a myopic StateGovernment in the 70s, it seemed easier to placerelated commercial activities across the road ratherthan across an entire bay in New Bombay. Successivecommittees appointed by the Government post-Independence had warned against completing the lastleg of the Back Bay Reclamation scheme. TheGovernment turned a blind eye and proceeded withthe reclamations. To make matters worse, thedevelopment plan of 1964 had recommended a highFSI of almost 4 for the area. The result was a bouquetof some 40 skyscrapers that had sprouted on a measly77 acres of land at the southern end of Marine Driveat Nariman Point. Nariman Point had become thefamily star, exceedingly tall and in the pink of health,while there lay Navi Mumbai in a corner, weak andneglected, by itself - the bastard child of a promiscuousgovernment.

The railway link between Mankhurd and Vashi,completed in 1992, has been the crutch that’s allowedthe new city to stagger back to its feet. Today, NaviMumbai is flourishing, boasting a per capita incomeconsiderably higher than that of old Bombay. It has adynamic commercial node at Vashi accommodatingglobal consumption icons such as McDonald’s andNike. It is home to a sizeable fraction of Bombay’smiddle class. Once better links are established withthe island city, there is no stopping Navi Mumbai’srise.

The battle for attention between its two sons has cometo symbolize the crux of Bombay’s problem. The islandcity needs to be decongested. The vacant mill landmight be the lungs that allow South Bombay to breatheagain. The city’s future lies in the east, on themainland, with Navi Mumbai. The trans-harbour linkcurrently under construction is proof that theGovernment has learnt its lesson. A Navi MumbaiInternational Airport is in the pipelines. The CentralBusiness District of Belapur continues to bloom. Thefuture seems promising.

Maybe the family’s ready to welcome back the darkhorse to its stable - a family reunion to buy the headof the family a peaceful funeral.

Information courtesy Bombay: The Cities Within by Sharada Dwivedi

Y


That Mumbai desperately needs land is a gross understatement, and it is acombination of geographical constraints, historical reasons and economic factorsthat are obliging the city to look towards the sea for a way out of this particularlycongested corner.

When Sir Thomas Raffles acquired

Singapore from the Sultan of Johor in

1819 on behalf of the East India

Company, Singapore was no more than

a fishing village spread over 63 islands.

H O W S I N G A P O R E W A S W O N F R O M T H E S E A

The act of raising the level of land which is eitherjust below or adjacent to water is known as landreclamation. Each country has its own favoured

mode of practice. Mumbai, as was discussed in detailin a previous article, employs fill material excavatedfrom mountains to bury the sea under. Small hillocksdeemed expendable by the people-in-charge are razedto the ground, making way for level land that can beexploited more profitably, and the rubble obtained isused to extend the coastline that crucial meter beyond.Prominent among countries which have relied on

reclamation to circumscribe land scarcity would beSingapore and the low-lying Netherlands.

Singapore undertook its first reclamation as early asthe 1820s, but reclamation only really picked up afterSingapore attained autonomy in 1959. The firstreclamation schemes employed rubble obtained bydigging up hills, but growing concerns for the ecologyhave since prompted authorities to employ alternativematerials, primarily sand dredged from the ocean floor.

Singapore has relied heavily on reclamation to satiate its people’s appetite

for land. Singapore is a small city-state, just one-and-a-half times the size of

Mumbai, that began as a humble fishing village. Increasing urbanization

and a steadily growing population has resulted, since the 1960s, in the

reclamation of some 100 square kilometers of land, and a plan to reclaim an

equal amount over the next thirty years. Reclamation has literally redrawn

Singapore’s coastline. Large areas have been straightened by the construction

of dykes across estuaries, swamps lying between the city-state’s 63 islands

have been filled up and the coast has been extended significantly on the

eastern and western fronts. Between 1961 and 1991, more than 5400 hectares

of sea was swallowed by the tiny country.

STEP ONE


LAND RECLAMATIONMODES

METHODS&

The East India Company wished to convert

Singapore into a trading post that would act

as a link between Europe and China. The

conversion entailed some amount of

reclamation. Rubble for the fill came from

razing hills in the locality.

The razed material was dumped into

shallow mangrove swamps which

were subsequently drained, and thus

was born the entrepôt town of

Singapore.

Dredging literally means digging up the sea bed. It isan important way of obtaining sand and gravel forconstruction and reclamation works. The dredgingprocess consists of excavation, transportation andutilization. Excavation entails the dislodgement andremoval of sediments from the bed of the water body.The dredged material may then be transported in self-contained hoppers of the dredgers, via barges, or itmay be pumped through pipes. Finally, the excavatedmaterial could be utilized as fill, or as constructionaggregate. For instance, dredging may take place inthe middle of the ocean but the dredged material mayhave to be transported to near-coast areas wherereclamation is being carried out.

There are limitations to the amount of land that canbe reclaimed in a feasible and viable manner.Singapore is a case in point. In its nascent yearsreclamation work was carried out at relatively shallowdepths of 5-10 m. With increasing forays into the seathe situation now demands reclamation be carried atdepths deeper than 15 m, meaning greater costs. Thereis also a need to preserve existing navigation channelsand sealanes. Land reclamation must not be at theexpense of port activity, which is why planning newschemes is such a tough balancing act.

Reclamation isn’t merely drowning the sea in an oceanof dirt. The fill needs to be compacted and cementedto impart it the requisite strength to bear the weightof structures that will be built upon it. The fill siteneeds to be protected from mass movements or

slippage of under-consolidated clays, which can causeinstability, and erosion must in any case be checked.

The coastline is under relentless attack in the form ofwaves from the sea. Waves pick up energy andmomentum from near-surface winds blowing acrossvast expanses of uninterrupted ocean. Most of thisaccumulated energy is dissipated near the coast in anarrow zone known as the surf zone. The breaking ofthe waves in this zone produces turbulence thatresults in the mobilization and suspension ofsediments. The breaking waves also create near-shorecurrents that flow across the coastline, and in theprocess transport massive quantities of sediment.

Hard-engineering structures are built along the coastto preclude erosion and movement of sand along thecoastline. Structures designed to prevent erosion ofthe upland are generally bracketed under the categoryof coastal armouring and include seawalls andrevetments. The other types, the kind that impedesand movement, include groynes and breakwaters.

Seawalls protect the upland by preventing waveattack. They are most often vertical walls made oftimber, concrete or steel-sheets that form a protectivefront against incident waves. Mumbai has extensivelyused seawalls, or bunds, to cut out the land from thesea, and filled it up with either dredged material orrubble from mountains. Interestingly, seawalls havebeen used to protect nuclear reactors built on artificialislands against submergence.

Revetments are shore-parallel structures usedcommonly to contain erosion. The structure isdesigned to create wave breaking by causing waves to

STEP TWO STEP THREE STEP FOUR

With better connectivity between the

islands and the mainland in mind, the

Johor-Singapore Causeway was

constructed in 1923 connecting

Singapore to Malaysia. A second road

link has been added since to reduce

congestion at the Causeway.

lose energy when they impinge the shore. This is donethrough both the reflection of waves and by turbulentdissipation of the wave energy. The design consists oftwo or more layers of stone with the upper, largerstones providing stability against wave attack. Thestone sizes must be graded to ensure that the lower,smaller stone does not wash out through the upperlayers. Typically, the stone is underlain by a geotextilefabric to prevent the base sand on which the structureis built from washing out. Geotextile fabric is inessence a filter paper with a much finer pore size.

Offshore breakwaters are similar to revetments inthat they aim to preclude erosion by limiting theamount of wave energy that reaches a coastline. Butunlike revetments, they are built parallel to the shore

at a fair distance away from the coastline. A breakwatercan either be submerged or emergent, depending uponwhether it rises above the surface of water or not. Noamount of searching will ever reveal a breakwater inMumbai. The city is oblivious of the concept, and thisignorance is well-explained. Mumbai is a naturalharbour. The port has deliberately been developed onthe eastern face, the leeward side, in such a way thatthe seven islands fused into a single land mass act asan improvised breakwater. Other reclamation methodsthat deserve mention would be those that employgroynes, dikes, artificial headlands and jetties.

As of today these are probably the most practiced,and possibly the most successful techniques in use.But knowing man’s capacity for innovation, who’s tosay what the morrow may herald.

H A R D E N G I N E E R I N G S T R U C T U R E S

A groyne is usually a vertical barrier built perpendicular to the

coast, extending offshore, constructed to control the sand

deposition pattern on coasts with significant alongshore

movement. The groyne causes accumulation of sand on the

updrift side while resulting in erosion on the downdrift side.

A breakwater is built seaward, parallel to the shoreline, at a

distance from the coast. Typically it consists of one long

continuous strip of artificial land, but occasionally it may be built

as a series of multiple offshore breakwaters separated by small

gaps, as is the case along the Kaike Coast in Japan.

GR

OYN

EB

RE

AK

WA

TER

RE

VE

TME

NT Revetments are shore-parallel structures constructed to limit

landward erosion. They generally consist of stones, asphalt, or

as is the case with Marine Drive, concrete tetrapods placed on a

slope at the foot of the coast face.

Y


An oft-recited local saying goes,“God made the world, but the Dutch

made the Netherlands.”

Windmills, used extensively in Holland to drain reclaimedland, have become part of the country’s landscape

G O I N G D U T C H

The case of Netherlands stands up as a sterling example

of land reclamation. The Netherlands is an averagely

small European nation that lies at the mouth of three

great rivers – the Rhine, the Maas and the Scheldt –

that empty into the North Sea. Two-thirds of the nation’s

land is situated below sea level. Consequentially, much

of the Dutch landscape is a result of human intervention,

devoid of which large parcels of land would be

permanently submerged.

The earliest of the country’s inhabitants lived along creek

ridges, and constructed rudimentary mounds to which

they could retreat with their livestock during periods of

flooding. With a more highly developed social

organization from the Middle Ages on, the Dutch adopted

more elaborate means of protecting their lands against

water. Water-control boards were formed which

undertook construction of a system of dikes (earthen

walls) to hold back the water. With the aid of windmills

they drained the enclosed tracts of land and took

measures to ensure that they remained permanently

dry and available for farming. These lands reclaimed

from lakes or the sea are called polders.

Polders initially encompassed small areas, but now

reclamation techniques have been extended to larger

areas. Immediately after the polders are pumped dry,

the muddy bottom is sown with reed by aircraft. Reed

strengthens the surface, making the polder accessible

by foot and motorized vehicles, as well as assisting the

formation of arable soil. Trenches and canals are dug

for drainage to keep the polder permanently dry. The

land thus reclaimed is utilized mainly for cultivation,

but the creation of artificial lakes and beaches has lent

them some recreational value as well.

DIKES


Sixty percent of Mumbai’s population lives in slums while 600 acres of land in the very heartof the city lie undeveloped. More than a hundred thousand people find themselves compelledto sleep on decrepit street pavements every night on an empty stomach while a decapitatedgovernment machinery chases itself in circles to ensure for itself a full belly. The city has oneof the nation’s highest per capita income levels yet a majority of its citizens are forced towallow in such shameful indigence. Why?

Another reason for the scarcity ofland in Mumbai is the Urban LandCeiling Act, which places a limit of500 square meters as the maximumsize of plots that can be sold inurban areas. Any land in excess ofthat will be redeveloped by the Statefor the poor. The act also prohibitsthe use of residential areas forcommercial purposes. The Act wasimplemented during the Emergencyof 1976 with an intent toredistribute resources by taxing therich and using the money to fundhousing for the poor. In Robin Hoodargot - to steal the rich people’s landand distribute it amongst thedestitute.

What has happened instead, as iseasy to guess, is that the rich havebought the right to hold onto theirland. Corruption has proliferated,and exemptions to the Act have beenpaid for in typical fashion - underthe table. Even worse though is thatlarge parcels of land are being heldon to by private trusts that are

Archaic laws, corruptpoliticians, an inefficientadministration and a

powerful builder’s lobby are whyland prices in Mumbai are thehighest of anywhere in the world.In this article we look at how thesefour factors have conspired toinduce land scarcity when thereshould have been none.

Land Regulations That ServeNobody

Acts that were put into place in adifferent era with a different purposein mind have lingered on as badmemories and worse. The RentControl Act, implemented duringthe Second World War, put a freezeon rent levels which seemed thento be on a never-ending upwardspiral. An unforeseen demand wascreated by the arrival of a largenumber of British soldiers fightingin the Second World War toMumbai, who were willing to paysubstantially more than current

rates, resulting in evictions allacross the city. The Act was anessential piece of legislation thatstipulated a tenant could not beevicted as long as he continued topay his rent, and that the right tolive on could be inherited by family.

The Act guaranteed permanence ofresidence to a large number of thecity’s citizens. But that was backthen, some sixty years ago. Nogovernment has since had thepolitical gall to do away with whatis quite clearly an irrelevantregulation in these times.Consequentially, families havestayed on in their ancestor’s plushbungalows on Cuffe Parade payingnot more than a few hundred rupeesa month for property that wouldeasily fetch a thousand times moreon the open market. The tenants areunwilling to let go of such pricelesstracts of land, and this is preventingthe reentry and subsequentdevelopment of some prime realestate.


reluctant to sell because they fearinvoking the Act. As a result,valuable real estate is once againbeing held back from the market.

In addition to these there are FloorSpace Index Restrictions. FloorSpace Index (FSI) is the maximumarea of floor space that can be builton one unit of land. Cities that aregeographically constrained tend torely on a high FSI to provide housingfor their citizens, which is why thereis such an abundance ofskyscrapers in New York City andHong Kong, and a seeming dearthof the same in the more spread out

European capitals of Paris andLondon. There is no city morebridled by the topography of itssurroundings than Mumbai, and yetthe authorities continue to persistwith an incomprehensibly lowaverage FSI of 1.33 for residentialareas. The highest in the city is 2,in the Bandra-Kurla complex.Compare it with New York where thehighest FSI in residential areas is15.

FSI restrictions first came into placein the 1960s. The city was strugglingto keep pace with the population,and infrastructure was beginning toshow the strain. The Act wasconceived to contain congestion byinducing an artificial land scarcitythat would push up land prices.High land prices, the governmentthought, would discourage peoplefrom coming to the city. But muchto the government’s disappointmentthe migrants didn’t stop coming. Acity like Mumbai in a third-worldcountry like ours is a magnet thatdraws in people from the ruralhinterland in the thousands on adaily basis. Most arrive with emptypockets. They sleep on thepavements for most of their lives,and if they’re lucky they get to diein a one-room chawl. That is theineluctable tragedy of the abject ina land that offers limitedopportunities.

Like all laws this one too has anotable sub-clause. Higher FSI canbe bought in return for developinglow-cost housing, through what areknown as Tradable DevelopmentRights (TDRs). TDRs are animportant source of state revenue.Money earned from TDRs in theperiod 2003-2005 was used to fundthe construction of 55,000 freehousing units for slum residents, apoint that we return to later.

Mumbai has an average population density of 28,000 persons per

square kilometer. New York City has a density of 25,000. The tallest

building in Mumbai is the Shreepati Arcade, a residential complex

built in the vicinity of Bombay Central, which measures up to a

grand height of 161 m. Buildings in NYC taller than 161 m number

one hundred and forty three!

Migration into the city peaked in the 80s, buthas shown signs of decline over the last twodecades. Migration contributed 36.8 per cent tototal population increase over the period 1991-2001. On an average, 42 families come to thecity every day in search of livelihood. “A migrantto Mumbai is typically a male villager in histwenties. Most often, he is illiterate. Nearly 22%of these migrants are child labourers.” (Times ofIndia report, 28 Dec 2006)

YOU SAID IT R K LAXMAN

Taken from the Times of India

Look, one of those satellites hanging about there!Are you sure you are not an unscrupulous builderwho has violated FSI?


Source: Census of India

Fig 1 Migrant InflowFig 1 Migration’s Contribution toPopulation Growth

2001

1991

1981

1971

1961

1951

Migrants into the city Population Increment

0 1 2 3

(in millions)

The Coastal Regulation Zones(CRZs), marked out by a legislationpassed in 1991 which restrictsdevelopment on land affected by thetide, compound the problem.According to the legislation,Mumbai is divided into three zoneson the basis of ecological sensitivity.New construction is prohibited inCRZ I. Construction is onlypermitted on the landward side ofroads in CRZ II, and that too at aminimum distance of 50 metersfrom the sea. In CRZ III areas,construction is allowed only after anapproval has been obtained from theState Ministry.

CRZ I encloses a small fraction ofthe city’s land that has been deemedparticularly sensitive, and it isgenerally agreed upon by all thatthese stretches needs to beprotected. However, it is the CRZ IIand CRZ III areas that exemplify thejudiciary’s predilection forprojecting India as a first-worldcountry in matters of theenvironment and the ecology. Oursis possibly the only country in theworld that has laws that protect theentire length of the nation’scoastline. The CRZ is admirable in

that it shows concern for ourwetlands and mangrove forests, butit has virtually brought to a halt allreclamation work and renderedimpossible any scheme that aims toredevelop the city’s port. Much ofthe area under CRZ II and CRZ IIIis highly built land falling within themunicipal limits of the Island Cityand is of vital importance tobusiness. Constrainingdevelopment in these areas impedesthe city’s economy - a city thatcontributes 40,000 crore in taxesevery year to the national treasury.

An Ineffective Administration

Combine all these regulations withan over-bloated and lethargicbureaucracy that takes anywherebetween 90-180 days to sanctionbuilding approval and it’s nosurprise that there’s such scarcityof land. Mumbai is being strangledby red tape and its citizens aremerely looking on, either toodisenchanted or too powerless to doanything. The government lacks thecourage to rescind the Urban LandCeiling Act, or remedy a clearlydefective Rent Control Act. Abankrupt municipality can’t afford

Fig 2 Growth of Mumbai’s Slums

While Mumbai’s population has grown steadily over the last 40 years, so have the city’s slums. What is ofinterest is that both have grown almost at the same rate - total population increased by nearly 7 millionpersons, of whom only 1.8 million have been fortunate enough to escape the city’s sprawling slums. Inother words, three in four people who have entered the city or been born in it after 1961 have passed theirlife in a slum.

Property rates in Mumbai are among the highestin the world. This has led to the emergence ofspeculation and hoarding in real estate as one ofthe more lucrative forms of investment.Consequentially, while thousands of flats lievacant in wait for the right price, a million peoplecontinue to sleep on the street.

Fig 3 Property Rates and PerCapita Income

Source: Census of India


Total Population Number of Slum Dwellers

(in m

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to develop the requisiteinfrastructure that a higher FSIwould call for. The powerfulbuilder’s lobby has bought for itselfsufficient political leverage to ensurethat land prices continue to rise, asbizarre as it may sound. And theState isn’t exactly overeager tonormalize land valuation as isovertly visible from its disinclinationto abolish the practice of TDRs.TDRs are disincentives for builders,and doing away with these mayprompt the entry of new players intothe real estate development market.That though is unlikely to happenanytime soon seeing that the Stateitself relies on high land prices tofund development schemes such asthose undertaken by the SlumRehabilitation Authority. Theseschemes appear superficially to bepro-poor - it is indeed hard to believefree housing could be of detrimentto anyone. But scratch the surfacea little and it becomes apparent thatthe money for these schemes comesfrom obliging some nine millionpeople to live in a one-room unit orworse.

The government needs to normalizeland valuation by deregulating themarket and increasing landavailability. When the cost ofdeveloping idle land exceeds thebenefits, then the policyenvironment has effectively haltedthe development process. 500 acresof closed port land and almost 600acres of land belonging to 25bankrupt and long-closed mills arerotting in the heart of the city (see

From 2003-2005 TDRs were used to fund the construction of

55,000 housing units given free to slum residents. The figure is

about equal to 3.5% of the number of slum dwelling families as

identified by the government. Going by historical data, if we assume

the number of slum dwellers increased by 1% p.a., it works out that

the number of subsidized units just about matches the increase in

the number of slum dwellers. In other words, the absolute number

of people living in slums has (thankfully) not increased, but nor

have the TDRs been successful in bringing the number down.

Fig 4). Where then is the incentiveto develop these lands?

The city needs to get past itssocialist hangover. We’ve triedpublic planning ratherunsuccessfully for sixty years. It’stime we admit it doesn’t work.Rather than taxing builders withsocial responsibilities, we need to begiving them incentives. If over thenext five years a million housingunits can be added to the market,not wholly unachievable, land priceswill automatically retreat, and adecent house that one may callhome may still become affordable fora fair majority of the city’spopulation.

Mumbaikers pay a considerablygreater proportion of their earningsfor considerably worse housing. Theamount of land isn’t increasing, andneither are FSIs. What is happeningthough is that the average per capitaland size holding is going down. Insimpler terms, more people arebeing squeezed into the sameamount of land, and we have cometo share this city not even 500square kilometers in area withfourteen million others. If thesituation is to improve, the cityneeds to rid itself of theseregulations stuck to its flesh likeblood-thirsty leeches intent onsucking every vein dry. In themeanwhile though, watch whereyou put that foot of yours. You don’twant to be treading on somebodyelse’s toes.

Fig 4 Idle Public Lands

Idle public land lying either with the Bombay Port Trustor private mills or the Railways adds up to 2152 acres.The McKinsey Report ‘Vision Mumbai’ estimates landsupply could increase by 50 per cent if the administrationwere willing to swallow a few hard pills: increase FSI toan average of 3-4, relax CRZ II & III, and rescind theUrban Land Ceiling Act and Rent Control Act.

Source: Charles Correa (2005)

Y


The Regional Plan makes a case for a ‘multi-nucleated’ city with separate centers to relievepressure off the island city. The Plan proposes

the development of a twin city across the harbourfrom the old, to be called New Bombay.

Mankhurd-Vashi rail link opens, bringing thenorthern part of Navi Mumbai into closercontact. The neighbourhoods of Vashi and

Belapur witness tremendous growth.

1973

1992Bandra-Worli Sea Link, the first legof the Western Expressway, opened

to public use.

B L U E P R I N T

2008

T h eT h eT h eT h eT h e

Consider this the next time you’re standing onMarine Drive, with your face turned to the sea,cool wind fingering your hair: A single square

foot of land at Nariman Point costs twenty thousandrupees. Twenty thousand: slightly less than what theaverage Indian makes in an entire year. Twentythousand: slightly more than what the averageengineering graduate starts on for a monthly wage.Twenty thousand. That’s precious real estate you’restanding on. For free!

Who in this manic city doesn’t dream of a visiting cardthat reads xyz, Marine Drive? And yet, the collectivedesire of a few million for office space on Marine Drivewon’t allow it to happen. Marine Drive is only threekilometers long - only room for so many people.

This pattern of spatial development along apredominantly north-south axis, with commercialactivity squeezed at the southern end, and residentialand industrial areas spread across the northernsuburbs, has been the bane of Mumbai’s existence.Most cities typically grow radially, branching out inseveral different directions at once. Mumbai’sabnormal arrangement is not borne from someperverse desire for experimentation, but rather by the

dictates of topography, abetted by some naive choicesof infrastructure projects.

Mumbai is a peninsular city bordered by the ArabianSea in the west and south, and Thane Creek in theeast. The city began as a small fortified outpostfunctioning from the southern tip of the peninsula.North was the only direction that offered room forexpansion. Matters were not helped by theconstruction of a suburban rail network oriented alongthe same cursed north-south axis. In a city where anastounding 85 percent commuters rely on publictransport, the impact of such a choice is profound.Moreover, government offices too are located in thesouth, as a result of which most business activity isalso concentrated in the region. In the absence of east-west linkages, is it any wonder that Mumbai has cometo follow this “mono-centric, linear pattern of growth”?

To state the obvious: this isn’t exactly the best spatialorganization Mumbai could have chosen for itself. Alook at San Francisco, a city similarly constrained byits topography, reveals what Mumbai did wrong. If acity is to spread across a body of water, there must besufficient linkages between both sides. San Franciscoboasts of four east-west linkages with the mainlandin addition to the Golden Gate Bridge across the strait

A second international airport built atNavi Mumbai, to lighten traffic at the

Chatrapati Shivaji InternationalAirport.

The Trans-Harbour Road Link, connecting south NaviMumbai to the Island City, completed. Second phase of theWestern Expressway – the Worli-Nariman Point Sea Link –also finished, marrying the CBDs of Nariman Point and theBandra-Kurla Complex. The first corridor of the Mumbai

Metro begins operation.

The Trans-Harbour Rail Link completed- a happy denouement to the proposed

integration of Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

2012

2010 2015

W a y O u tW a y O u tW a y O u tW a y O u tW a y O u t

joining San Francisco Bay with the Pacific Ocean.Mumbai at present has only two crossings from themainland, both of them too far north to relieve anypressure off the island city.

In addition, most of the world’s larger metropolisesessentially function as conglomerations of two or threecities. The Greater Tokyo Area comprises of Japan’sthree biggest cities: Yokohama, Tokyo and Osaka. NewYork and Philadelphia too share this symbioticrelationship. San Francisco has Oakland to its east,across the Bay, and San Jose to the south. And don’tbe conned into thinking that Philadelphia is in anyway subordinate to New York, or Osaka is riding piggy-back on Tokyo and Yokohama. The nature of therelationship is far from parasitic. Oakland is home toUSA’s fourth largest container port. San Jose is alsoknown as Capital of Silicon Valley.

Mumbai too tried the strategy with Navi Mumbai. NaviMumbai was first conceived in the Regional Plan of1973. It failed to take off due to reasons that werementioned in a previous article: poor linkages withthe mainland, failure of the government to shift officeacross harbour, and the Nariman Point reclamations.The scenario improved dramatically for the northernpart of the new city after completion of the Mankhurd-

Vashi rail link. The southern half however, hasremained largely undeveloped, principally due to theabsence of quick communication with and easy accessto the island city. Seen in this light it is easy tounderstand why the proposed trans-harbour link isso imperative to Mumbai’s continued growth.

The Trans-Harbour Link was first mooted in thecurrent Regional Plan for the years 1996-2011. ThePlan aims to set in motion an “irreversible process ofspatial decentralization”, calling for development ofnew centers of growth and addition of better transportlinkages between these centers. The idea is to helpMumbai move from a “mono-centric” to a “multi-nucleated” model. South Bombay will of course remainthe dominant center, but central business districts(CBDs) will be developed at other areas to share someof the load. The Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) is wellon its way. The Belapur and Vashi CBDs have takenoff in recent years courtesy of the Mankhurd-Vashilink. Through the construction of a Trans-HarbourLink, the same could be achieved for areas in andaround the Nhava Sheva Port. The potential of theregion becomes clear when the following fact is takeninto consideration: the southern half of Navi Mumbaihas 2500 hectares of fallow land that can potentiallybe used for housing. Once the link is complete,

commuting time to the island city will come down toan hour-and-a-half. Thus, Nhava Sheva could wellsupplant the neighbourhoods of Thane, Kalyan andthe Vasai-Virar corridor (regions that have shown largepopulation growth over the last decade) in their rolevis-à-vis Mumbai.

The grand design is to ultimately integrate these fiveregions: Nariman Point, BKC, Vashi, Belapur CBD andNhava Sheva (see map) through the completion of someworld-class infrastructure projects. The Bandra-WorliSea Link (BWSL) currently under construction andthe Western Expressway are two very important linksin the chain that the Plan envisages forging – a chainthat will shape the city into a pentagon of sorts, witheach node acting as an engine for greater economicgrowth. The Western Expressway would be a 15kilometer 8 lane expressway that will run along theshoreline from Worli to Malabar Point, and then acrossthe bay to Nariman Point. When complete, theexpressway, in combination with the BWSL, will actas a direct connect between BKC and Nariman Point.The project is expected to reduce commuting time fromthe southern end of Mumbai to newly developed jobcenters in the suburbs by at least a half hour. Proposedbus lanes along the entire length of the Expresswaywould ensure that it serves low income groups as well.The Mumbai Metro is another attempt at improvingeast-west connectivity. There is also a plan to developa second international airport for the city across theharbour, to absorb part of the air traffic currentlyborne by the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

These grandiose projects are admittedly consistentwith the government’s agenda to decentralize the cityand thereby relieve some of the pressure off itstraditional heart. The sole source of concern is theproposed financing of these projects, particularly theTrans-Harbour Link and the Western Expressway. Theplan as of now is to recover costs though the chargingof tolls, and this is of worry. Tolls would almostcertainly be self-defeating for a bridge whose purposeis to distribute people and jobs from a place that isover-crowded to a place that is less crowded. Pastexperience stands up in support of this point of view.Revenues from the NOIDA freeway near Delhi havebeen, at the very least, disappointing. Reason: trafficcounts are not meeting projections thanks largely dueto a hefty toll. In this context, the proposed toll of Rs100 for a one-way commute across the Trans-HarbourLink would almost certainly debilitate theadministration’s vision for Nhava Sheva.

There is widespread consensus that the city’s futurelies in the East and South-East, along the Mumbai-Pune corridor. The aim is to foster a relationship

between the two cities much like the kind shared byYokohama, Tokyo and Osaka. The success of this planhinges upon the success of the Trans-Harbour Link.A high toll rate could well be a deathblow. HafeezContractor suggests an alternative,

“to reclaim land from the sea off the east coastof Mumbai, which will link up to the mainland.This solves many problems at one go: it creates3,400 acres of land for us to build housesupon, and creates a lake, which after threemonsoons will be a fresh water lake that canserve Mumbai’s need. So we will have a lakenext to Mumbai, fed by three rivers, which atpresent just disappear into the bay. “Moreover, by linking Mumbai to the mainlandthrough the reclamation and the making of adam, the trans-harbour link that has beenplanned and which is going to cost us billionsof rupees, is created for no cost. Also, since themainland is easily accessible, that makesavailable more land to meet Mumbai’s growingneeds.

“And finally, when the government sells thereclaimed land, it can earn up to Rs 120 billion,which can be used as seed money to upgradeinfrastructure in the city.”

The proposed plan calls for reclamation of a very largearea. The ecological consequences of shutting offThane Creek and converting it into a fresh-water lakecould well be disastrous. A technical study of theconsequences of such a reclamation has not as yetbeen carried out. The government is reluctant topursue such a course of action since the reclamationwould be in direct conflict with the Coastal RegulationZone Laws. The political risk is high, theadministration doesn’t wish to risk facing theenvironmentalists’ ire. No government will evenconsider it.

The plan as it is on paper sounds perfect. The citygets land (and fresh water), the government gets money(lots of it). In the end a direct land connection betweenthe twin cities is fashioned. Contractor is veryoptimistic, “… this idea is so simple and solves somany problems at one go that nobody will believe me.”It would indeed be a pity if a project that promises somuch was never even explored.

Is anybody listening?

Excerpts taken from Rediff Interview with Hafeez Contractor (October29, 2003)

Y


E d i t o r ’ s P a g e


My loyal chair to which I owe this aching back.

A bottle of cold water tasting mildly fizzy. Deck of cards

for a game of 29 on a lazy afternoon. An XXL-size ash

tray and a pack of cigarettes to get through the night.

Laptop on which most of this magazine was made. A

box of dry fruit that came from home - lasted an entire

day, it did. All Out to drive away the mosquitoes. Wish

there was something to drive away my equally

pestilential equally ravenous wing mates!

Foooootball!

My humble eight square meters of land in this crowded

city. Mine for now, mine for a year. Or maybe not;

with reservations set to be enforced next semester,

and the number of students expected to increase by a

third, who knows with how many I might be sharing

this little piece of land that I fancy thinking of as mine.

Breathe.

The crowd’s louche body

clings and parts in place, an ovation

rigid and adrift, alive. It is the sea

that sweeps the sea.

Broom tight with inner bickering.

A mortal scour. Meaning,

how the crowd hates the crowd.

Outwardly. It admits you or me

as an enormous lidless eye admits

glittering

beams. Endless watching, washing us

in.

The crowd’s object, its point,

is always vanishing into its own mass. It

is a sea

with no concern for us, even as it scores.

From Crowds Surround Us by Tom

Thompson

CRAMPED FOR ROOM

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