Bandra is disappearing: Is this what Mumbai calls development?

(left) A Bandra bungalow as it stands today; and a representational image of what Bandra would look like after redevelopment | Photo Credit: iStockphoto and Special arrangement

(left) A Bandra bungalow as it stands today; and a representational image of what Bandra would look like after redevelopment | Photo Credit: iStockphoto and Special arrangement

Nearly 35 years ago, I used to frequent a certain newspaper office in Bombay’s Fort area. So frequently did I visit that the security guard, a hefty fellow named Misquitta, began recognising me and chatting whenever I walked in. When he heard I lived in Bandra, he said, “I do, too! But the place is changing, going down the tubes. All those lovely old bungalows, they’re tearing them down and putting up tall buildings. Bandra isn’t Bandra anymore.”

Over the next few weeks, I wandered Bandra’s streets, admiring bungalows that my friend feared would soon be gone. Several had already been replaced by multi-storeyed buildings, and many more have vanished since. As I write this, I’m counting the ones I remember that still exist. Ten fingers are enough.

Now, with the coming into force of the city’s Development Control and Promotion Regulations, 2034 (DCPR 2034), there’s a second wave of vanishing: the craze for “redevelopment”. Five- and seven-storeyed buildings are being torn down, to be replaced by towers 18 or 20 storeys high. Anyone involved in this process has heard of the relevant DCPR regulations: 33(5), 33(6), and 33(7), that govern key redevelopment schemes across Mumbai. Their additional floor space index (FSI) rights make redevelopment financially irresistible, particularly in high-value suburbs like Bandra.

I wonder if there’s another Misquitta who will one day mourn: “All those lovely moderately-tall buildings, they’re tearing them down and putting up skyscrapers. Bandra isn’t Bandra anymore.”

It’s true, Bandra is changing dramatically. Across the street, two 20-storey buildings are nearing completion, with four more around the corners. A 10-minute stroll down Turner Road takes me past at least eight others under construction. My own seven-storeyed building is already a dwarf.

What does it all mean? Many more people, for one. A century-old, single-storeyed bungalow becomes a 14-flat building becomes a 28-flat tower: 28 households where there was once one. India’s population has grown roughly five-fold in a century. That itself is eye-popping, but set it against Bandra’s 28-fold increase.

Not just people, either. The bungalows were built when few families owned cars. Still, let’s assume each bungalow had one. Today, one “redeveloped” Bandra building I know of — where once there was a bungalow — allots three parking spaces per flat. That’s 84 cars where once there was one.