Mumbai: Another day, another open space staring at disappearance. In recent weeks, BMC has steamrolled through objections from resident groups, citizen forums, activists and even MLAs from governing parties to either change the reservations of close to half a dozen open spaces in the city or has laid out plans to do so and make them available for a convention centre, as is the case with the Neville D’Souza Football Ground in Bandra Reclamation, or rezone it for a petrol pump or a temple precinct revamp, among others. The latest casualty is a plot in Jogeshwari’s Ambivli. BMC has proposed deleting the reservation for a garden and park on 1,840sqm of the land, where a temple is located, and merging it with an adjoining residential zone.Citizen groups and opposition netas partially blamed the scenario on the absence of a permanent policy to regulate the city’s open spaces. They alleged that with no expert contractors and in the face of budget cuts, parks and gardens have fallen into neglect.The last such open spaces policy was put on hold in 2016 by CM Devendra Fadnavis following a public and political outcry over provisions that allowed private players to adopt open spaces. BMC has since then drafted multiple policies but these too drew much flak and had to be shelved. With the lens on the takeover of several sites across the city, citizens and NGOs have demanded that the policy be now fast-tracked. They pointed out that BJP, the governing party in BMC, had in its 2026 city polls manifesto committed to protecting all public open spaces that are maintained by the civic body and completely barring private participation or caretaker leases.That the city has been losing its recreational spaces is no secret. A report released last month—titled ‘Public Open Space Mapping and Management Strategy for Mumbai’—by Urban Design Research Institute and NGO Alliance for Governance and Renewal found that Mumbai currently has less than 1.3sqm of open space per person, far below the target of 4sqm laid out in Development Plan (DP) 2034.BMC has acknowledged that it has taken over 125 plots measuring more than 1.5 lakh sqm since 2015 under regulation 14 of Development Control and Promotion Regulations 2034. It said in a statement that as per DP 2034, open space reservation is nearly 1.9 crore sqm, besides the Coastal Road promenade spread across 8.8 lakh sqm. “There are other sources of open spaces like layout RG (recreation ground) (in private development), special planning authority areas, industrial plot conversions.” It said three of the plots in Bandra, Mulund and Jogeshwari whose reservations were proposed to be changed in recent times admeasure “only 14,290sqm”.Nayana Kathpalia, trustee of Urban Design Research Institute and NGO Alliance for Governance and Renewal, said development on open spaces is “an absolute disgrace” in a city starved of such spaces. “Despite this, we continue to see such proposals for reservation changes across the city. The scale of construction taking place is evident. Yet, govt seems focused only on finding more land to build on. Activists in the past had approached courts several times, but this did not necessarily yield favourable results.”Zahida Banatwala, trustee of NGO AGNI, said, “Citizens should have a strong say in how plots in their neighbourhoods are developed, rather than allowing every piece of land to be viewed primarily as a real estate opportunity. We are not against development or the city’s progress, but there must be a healthy balance between development and open spaces. This is essential to ensure that citizens do not get a raw deal.”
