REDEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL LAND IN URBAN AREAS: OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS. A CASE STUDY OF TEXTILE MILL LAND REDEVELOPMENT IN MUMBAI

Urban industrial land is an important and integral part of city land use. Mumbai had been the industrial powerhouse of India since the British were in rule. It was a prime centre for cotton processing that directly fed into thecotton mills that were established in the subsequent phases of history. After led by the textile mills, several otherlarge and medium scale industries were established in the post-independence era and the development plansmade provision for the same through earmarking industrial zones for manufacturing, trade and logisticsoperations. Bombay has shown how to build the enormous potential in industrial production and almost becameone of the country’s backbones of industries and economy. However, concentration of industries andindustrialization have also left many demands on city’s infrastructure and housing, and pressure began to mounton making the city inhabitable through shifting of industries to the outskirts. In the subsequent periods, what isknown as the ‘decongestion’ policies were laid down in the era of first regional master plan proposed bothindustrial as well as population decongestion, at a time when the population rise and industrialization were onmove. These together with other factors laid death knell for manufacturing industry in general and textile industryin particular. As textile mills were closing down their operations, they sought commercial redevelopment of theland, which became an important historical battle between the industry and government. The first proposal ofgovernment based on the Charles Correa Committee report sought equal distribution of land between citygovernment, industry and state government, which was later amended to change the fate of declining textile millsthrough DCR 58. This paper traces these changes in industrial planning and policy in Mumbai that have someimportant implications to the development of industrial land in cities.