https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/mahalaxmi-racecourse-is-it-the-end-for-mumbais-biggest-open-space-12161301.html 23 percent of all ‘open spaces’, as per the 1991 Development Plan, are occupied by buildings or slums. It gets worse. Even amongst the open spaces that are ‘available’ for gardens or recreation grounds - more than 1/3rd of them are lying undeveloped or vacant. Mumbai has the lowest open space on a per capita basis in the world.
In 2016 – the municipal corporation decided to change that reality. They did. But only in a mischievous manner. They changed the definition of ‘open spaces.’ Open spaces now include road dividers, forests, terrace gardens, traffic islands.
Land remains idle and gradually slums sprout up and Mumbai sees another slum-land being created and nurtured by political parties
b) Over a period of time the land gets sold or monetized to builders – similar to the scenario with mill-lands in Central Mumbai over a decade ago. The city had an opportunity with 600 acres of land after textile mills went bankrupt leaving an important resource behind: Land. Today in almost all of that land – there are luxury towers for the rich but precious little for the poor and middle-class.