Back Bay is located on the southeast tip of the island near the fort,
the central business district and the area known as Colaba. When the plan
was originally proposed it called for :The Back Bay Reclamation Project was originally proposed in 1865, started in 1913, sidelined by government regulations until 1922, abandoned in 1930, proposed again in 1950 and finally completed in 1970. So goes the soap opera of the Back Bay Project. A highly debatable project that has done more harm than good.
Back Bay is located on the southeast tip of the island near the fort,
the central business district and the area known as Colaba. When the plan
was originally proposed it called for :
However, when it was finally completed the results were radically different,
mainly commercial space and upper class housing, at an even higher concentration
than the whole of South Bombay. This was extremely problematic because South
Bombay was already highly concentrated due to the close proximities to the
coast and the central business district(CBD). The Back Bay Project only
created more congestion, overcrowding and pressure on rail and road transportation
than already existed. Previously long commuting hours were even longer and
more expensive. Because Mumbai is on a island, it is heavily north/south
concentrated. The CBD lies near the coast, so everyday commuters all move
south. By furthering development in the southern part of the island, it
just created higher concentration in an area that was already extremely
dense and in high demand. It also increased real estate values in an already
high market and there is now a greatly distorted land and housing market.
This project, concentrated on the southern tip of the island, had huge repercussions
on the entire city.
In 1985, the Bombay Metropolitan and Regional Development Authority(BMRDA) attempted to alleviate the situation, but the damage had already been done. All they could do was slow or terminate development in undeveloped areas. They developed many of the undeveloped areas as public park space, playgrounds, gyms and a bus and police station. However, these resources are only available to a limited amount of people and it was not able to aid the high density problem.
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