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Towards planned urban development

Kalpana Sharma

As our cities undergo a makeover, we urgently need an urban rehabilitation policy. Otherwise, as in Mumbai, the few with the ability to shout the loudest will hold up important infrastructure projects.

THE WORLD Bank's recent decision to temporarily suspend financial support to one component of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) raises a host of issues that urban planners and policy makers in Mumbai and other Indian metros must address. Even as plans to invest crores of rupees in our cities are being formulated, we have to ask if there is any policy in place to resettle people affected by urban infrastructure projects — both the poor and the better off.

The MUTP is a $940 million project of which $463 million is the road and rail component while $79 million has been earmarked for the resettlement component. A good part of the project, involving extension of roads and railway lines and adding to Mumbai's fleet of buses, is already complete.

An important component of the project has been resettling thousands of poor households. For instance, people living along the railway tracks had to be relocated and resettled. This was partly to extend Mumbai's lifeline, its commuter railway that transports over 64 lakh passengers each day, and partly to increase the speed of the trains. Trains were forced to slow down in certain sectors because of habitations barely three feet from the railway line.

Extended negotiations between the State Government, the Railways, and the World Bank ultimately led to two things: one, all the people living along the tracks, some 14,000 households or an estimated 60,000-70,000 people, were resettled. This is no mean achievement in itself. Two, as part of the plan to extend and make the suburban railways more efficient, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation that brings together the Central and Western Railways was set up. By bringing the entire suburban rail network under one organisation, future plans for expansion and extension will be easier to implement.

Also as part of the MUTP, Mumbai's bus service that transports 45 lakh passengers each day has been augmented. The project is being implemented by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

Amongst the reasons for the suspension of financial support is the fact that a grievance redress system that was supposed to be in place was not functioning properly, that some of the resettlement did not follow a proper process and people were asked to move even as their appeals were pending. And some of the sites where people were relocated did not meet the standards laid out in the project agreement. State Government officials concede that there is some substance to these complaints.

The main bottleneck that has now sprung up is partly due to an oversight in the initial planning stages, officials admit. When the project was planned, it was assumed that the majority of those needing to be resettled would be the urban poor. In fact, surveys had established that 40 per cent of the project-affected families were below the poverty line. And of the estimated 19,228 project affected households, over 14,000 were along the railway tracks.

Today, the State Government finds itself in a bind. As long as the resettlement involved poor people, there was no problem. In line with its own slum redevelopment policy, the Government agreed to provide a 225 square foot flat free of cost to every project affected household. Commercial establishments under the State Government's policy are entitled to a similar space free of cost but need to purchase additional space up to a limit of 750 square feet.

In the initial stages of the World Bank project, a different policy had been agreed upon for commercial enterprises. The MUTP project document states: "Every PAH (project affected household) losing a commercial structure shall be eligible for an alternate place for commercial use of equivalent area." This was later modified in accordance with the State Government's policy.

However, the World Bank also insists on rehabilitation and not just resettlement and wants the project affected to be economically better off if possible in their new location. It is this provision in the MUTP, to which the State Government had agreed, that has stalled work on one of two link road projects in Mumbai's suburbs that will connect the east of the city to the west. While 90 per cent of the work on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) is complete and 810 out of 1,305 project affected households and commercial establishments have been shifted, the second such road link, the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR) has hit a roadblock. Even in the SCLR, 2,430 out of 2,472 project affected households have shifted and around 360 out of 549 commercial establishments have shifted. A small group of around 160 commercial units are holding out.

Like all the structures blocking the new road link, these are illegal. They were not demolished in the past because they did not obstruct anything and, in any case, the system of patronage that permits such illegalities to flourish is virtually the norm. Today these structures are in the way. They have to be removed. But the Government is bound to provide the owners not just an alternative space but also compensate them for loss of income, which they are bound to incur in their new location.

While the poor households and some of the smaller shopkeepers located in the area have shifted, these larger commercial establishments have organised themselves. And it was their complaint to the Bank that led to an Independent Inspection Panel coming to Mumbai, and submitting a critical report about the way the project was being implemented. Before the Board of the World Bank reviews the report next month, the country office has suspended further financial support to the project.

Significance

The significance of the step taken by the Bank goes beyond the specifics of this particular issue. As has been pointed, in this case the problem has arisen because the Government agreed to the World Bank's policy on rehabilitation without fully realising the consequences. In fact, when the MUTP project came through, the majority of the affected were the poor. The question of the criteria that should be used to compensate commercial enterprises that have to be relocated for urban infrastructure projects had not been thought through. Another related question that was not anticipated was whether people who had violated planning norms should be treated on a par with those who were within the law?

In the case of the urban poor, the State Government has recognised that even if they are squatting illegally on some land, they are entitled to an alternative because they have had no other housing option. But the same argument cannot be automatically extended to all illegal commercial structures. Bureaucrats in the State Government insist that the question of paying huge compensation to shopkeepers with illegal structures is out of the question.

The standoff in Mumbai is a reminder that an urban resettlement and rehabilitation policy needs to be debated and decided. It should not be formulated by default — as in the present instance. In other words, the World Bank should not be permitted to lay down a policy for a city without those who govern the city thinking it through. For if the criteria that the World Bank has laid down for the MUTP are followed in the rest of Mumbai, the process of relocating settlements will become not just complicated but extremely expensive. In fact, according to one official, if the World Bank's policy is accepted as the norm, the State Government will have to set aside at least Rs.5,000 crore just to compensate commercial establishments that come in the way of infrastructure projects.

Similar issues have come up in many cities and there are no easy solutions. In Delhi, for instance, the municipal corporation is discovering that entire sections of the city are illegal. If these structures, like the new shopping malls, are obstructing an infrastructure project, should the owners be compensated?

As our cities undergo a makeover, we urgently need an urban rehabilitation policy. It has to take all who are affected into account. And it is needed regardless of the source of funds. Otherwise, as in Mumbai, the few with the ability to shout the loudest will hold up important infrastructure projects such as these link roads. For the Maharashtra Government, the situation is even more urgent. For if it is not able to work its way around this, one wonders how it will tackle a whole line up of projects that are already on the anvil — beginning with the clean up of the Mithi river that contributed to last year's devastating floods to the modernisation plans for Mumbai airport.

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