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Why the Largest Planned City Failed? The city of Mumbai houses a population of over 20 million making it the 4th most populated city and one of the most populous urban regions in the world. The city being the economic capital has seen an explosion of population growth in the past 20 years due to the migration of people from other parts of the country seeking business and employment opportunities. The population density is estimated to be around 20,500 persons per square kilometre with a living space of 4.5 square metres per person. With this ever-increasing population surge, Mumbai urban agglomeration extends its northern limits to house more people. Due to the high population density, the land rates in the metropolitan area of the city are very high. For cheaper habitation options, the migrants settle in the northern parts of the city far from their work places which leads to long commutes on the city’s busy mass transit system. The rural to urban migration has also led to the growth of the slums. The percentage of people living in the slums is estimated to be as high as 41.3% in the city.
- Minoti Mehta
“These 12 self-sustained nodal townships are very well connected to each other by mass rapid transit corridors meant to minimize the commute time.” However, unlike the situation Even though Navi Mumbai was planned during the time when Mumbai’s population was just 20-25% of what it is today, it was still successful in reducing the population density of Mumbai but only to a certain extent. The original idea of creating a twin city on the eastern side of the old city to stop the growth on the northern side failed due to the lack in proper mass transit systems connecting the two cities.
To help the situation of the rapid population growth and the deteriorating quality of life due to the organic growth of the city, the twin city of Navi Mumbai was proposed in 1970. When this new city was proposed, it was meant to settle a population of at least 4 million to try and contain the rapid growth of the old city and create more job opportunities. Navi Mumbai, planned by Charles Correa is one of the largest planned cities in the world. It was well-planned and used a mixed-use planning approach to avoid a Mumbai-like situation of activity concentration. Navi Mumbai has a nodal pattern of development based on the principle of decentralization. It breaks the concentration of population and activities in a particular area and balances the land use in every single nodal township. 80
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1/ DECEMBER 2019
