Lord of the Slums

Do you want to know who the lords of the slums are? Which slums, you might ask. Lets say the world renowned slums of Mumbai. Again, i'll tell you who lords over them: its the petty MLA's and Municipal corporators, that who.

There is an ongoing discussion in the Skyscraper City Forum over the culture of slums. Its a vaguely defined term, but somebody wanted to know the contribution of slums to the total ethos of a city as big as Mumbai. And that got everyone talking.

Actually, the discussion on slums has been a very classic urban discussion material. Usually, the people who want to make the changes for the better have absolutely no power to make them, and the people who have the power to make those changes dont want to. And the reason they dont want to is because slums are big money. One forumer informed us that the going rate for some slum plots can go up to lakhs. And who is this money paid to when the owner of the land is the government? Yep, its the local neta.

Mumbai's urban laws havnt changed in the last 50 years. Have you ever heard of the Rent Control Act? This act makes it unlawful for landlords to raise the rents of their establishment, thus rentiers have been paying the same rent for decades! In this economy of globalization and reform, is this not a travesty? It is for this reason that houseowners dont rent their establishments out, and this is why people looking to rent decent housing dont find any. Look at Marine Drive. That is prime property and it is in such a sad state because the rent has stayed the same and why should a landlord feel like making renovations when the returns are negligble.

All sorts of accusations and abuses have been hurled on the slum dwellers, but what surprises me is that nobody actually tries to look into the actual causes. I have no doubt in my mind that given the chance to move, most of the slum dwellers would not hesitate to pack their bags and head to a place where they can lead a more decent life, send their kids to school, and be close to where they work.

There are other laws too, such as the Urban Land Ceiling Act, which severely hampers efficient utilization of urban land. It is there in many states, and I think it works something like this. There is a cinema on a plot of land. it shuts down and now you want to build a big office complex there but you can't, because it is earmarked for entertainment. So there are swaths of prime land lying unused, and land prices have been going through the roof.

Similarly, there is the Floor Space Index issue. FSI is the ratio of the total area of a building to the gross area of the plot of land the building is on, according to wikipedia. For example, an FSI of 5 would mean that the total area of the building can be 5 times the total area of the land. And in most of the countries in south-east Asia or the Americas, this is a high number, from 5 to 10, thus enabling the construction of big skyscrapers. In Mumbai, it has been a pitiable 1.5 (or 2) for a long time, which means lesser scrapers, and more urban sprawl. A very bad thing in a nation where land is scarce.

The pusillanimous state government has been making noises about bringing in reforms, but of course, thats all it is, noises. Why hurt a steady source of good income?

Mumbai slums in the grip of land mafia

Most of Mumbai's illegal slums are controlled by slumlords who use a powerful network of police and local officials to turn empty plots of land into slums. Their main targets are government lands lying free for years. In fact, from time to time, slumlords break down their own slums so that they can resell the land at a higher price.

"The land mafia are local goons who have connections with the police, administration and local politicians. Nobody comes to an illegal slum expecting a free stay,'' said Simpreet Singh, member, National Alliance of People's Movement.

The Ambujwadi slum is a classic example. 23 acres of this slum is on land belonging to the Collector. The rest extends to the very sensitive Coastal Regulatory Zone. The slums have eaten into the mangroves. The slumlords have covered the swamps with building debris so that the waves don't touch the plot.

But a year ago, the bulldozers came and much of Ambujwadi was demolished. Thousands lost their homes.

Mumbai's dilemma soon had a larger audience. Human rights activists and UN officials came visiting to hold public hearings.To counter criticism that they were anti-poor, the municipal corporation also began targeting illegal structures of the rich.

But in Ambujwadi, like in other slums, the slum mafia sat back and waited. Once the bulldozers and the television crews had left, they slowly went back to business.Bit by bit, they began selling the land once again. Today, a year later, pieces of land have been sold to the 10,000 people who now live here.

Obviously there is neither lease nor deed on paper. It's life on the razor's edge.

''The local police helped the slumlords bring in people from Dharavi to this slum. When we protested, the police registered complaints against us. The police are openly supporting the slumlords,'' said a resident.

After the slums become a residential colony over the years, the government demolishes them. And in place of the old slums, new ones grow. Those who control this cycle remain the same, only the victims change. And the government remains a mute spectator till the next series of politically motivated demolitions.
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India Is `Land of Opportunity' Minus the Land

A growing shortage of good-quality urban real estate in India is beginning to act as a dampener on many businesses that might otherwise have strong prospects.

``Supply of vacant space of the desired size in prime locations is extremely limited,'' economist Amitendu Palit said in a recent study on the challenges that global retailers can expect in India. ``While New Delhi and Mumbai are expected to acquire additional retail space of around 30 to 40 million square feet over the next few years through new retail formats, the bulk of this is to be located in satellite or suburban areas.''

Zoning Blues

The Indian property market is extremely fragmented, thanks to zoning laws that specify land use based on pre-World War II British notions of what cities should look like.

A legal ``conversion'' -- using a vacant factory or farm for, say, retail or housing -- is so difficult and time-consuming that many individuals and businesses cut corners, and bribery is rampant. It's only when the judiciary insists on a faithful enforcement of the zoning norms that one gets to understand just how oppressive the laws really are.

A dearth of designated hotel land in central business districts is already showing up in an acute shortage of rooms. Average rates have shot up to about $160 a night in New Delhi and $242 in Bangalore. With such high room charges, India will struggle to build a tourism industry.

Acrophobia

The other obstacle is that Indian planners dislike tall buildings, and this has very little to do with aesthetics.

The logic goes something like this: The taller the building, the more people who will be working or living in it. That means the authorities will have to provide wider roads to avoid traffic snarls. They will also have to supply piped water at a higher pressure to satisfy the occupants on top floors.

The municipality will have to collect garbage every day from taller buildings, whereas it can leave smaller heaps of refuse to rot for a few days in suburbs scattered over a larger area.
Since both the revenue and the technical capabilities of Indian municipalities are limited, town planners impose a very stringent limit on the floor-space index.

A recent experiment by the Mumbai authorities to provide decent housing to the 600,000 residents of Dharavi, Asia's largest shantytown, has evinced strong investor interest because there's talk of allowing a floor-space index level of as high as 4, Daily News and Analysis reported Jan. 30.

Rent Control

A large chunk of India's prime real estate is being held to ransom by existing tenants who are using archaic rent-control laws to pay rates that were fixed 60 years ago.

In Mumbai, real estate supply is constrained by the Maharashtra state government's Urban Land Ceiling Act more than six years after the federal government repealed the draconian statute and advised states to do the same.

Almost five years ago, McKinsey & Co. warned that India was losing as much as 1.3 percentage points of economic growth because of distortions in the land market. Since then, the size of the economic opportunity knocking on India's doors has increased, and so has the pressure on urban real estate.