Page 87 - EW February 2026

Vision Mumbai Plan dependence on exclusive term spatial planning with ing in Mumbai’ — which is
(2003); Citizens Action spatial planning tools like medium-term investment both insightful and a de-
Group (CAG); Bombay Ur- land use, FSI, and zoning strategies and rationalized light to read. It advocates
ban Development Project to manage population FSI. Integrated sectoral for the much-neglected
(BUDP, 1985-1994), which growth has persisted. plans, Phatak argues, pedestrian. Four out of ten
turned a swamp into the Phatak comments could open up areas along Mumbaikars walk to work;
Bandra-Kurla Complex; insightfully and gently transit routes and ease the rest must walk to the
Mumbai Metro Rail Cor- points to the persistence of pressure on the urban bus stop or train station.
poration Ltd (MMRCL); conservative attitudes in mainland. A word about CEPT
Maharashtra Railway Vi- planning. In the post-in- A word of caution: University Press — it
kas Corporation (MRVC); dependence decades, me- these essays are not for has done sterling work
Special Planning Author- tropolises were denounced the uninitiated. They in publishing thoughtful
ity for the New Airport as parasitic creatures of contain dense, technical books and monographs on
Influence Notified Area imperialism. The concen- discussion from the field architecture and planning.
(NAINA); Maharashtra tration of wealth in cities of urban planning. It took Phatak’s book would have
Industrial Development was seen as depriving less- the reviewer time to wrap benefited from proper co-
Corporation (MIDC); and privileged regions — when, his head around terms pyediting. There is no glos-
Greater Mumbai Develop- in fact, concentrated eco- like Land Capture Value sary to explain the many
ment Plan (MCGM, 2015). nomic urban activity often (LCF) and Value Capture acronyms that dominate
Whew! created opportunities in Financing (VCF), which planning discourse. And
Phatak observes that distant places. stem from 19th-century in a book of this scope,
there has been little hori- Long-term plans have utilitarian ideas of taxing the absence of an index is
zontal dialogue between largely failed; they did ‘rent’ and debates on the inexcusable. In today’s age,
agencies. There was much not anticipate trends like confiscatory nature of generating a proper index
talk about ‘integration’, Mumbai’s increasing con- state taxation. For the is just a click away.
few admitted that it was gestion. What was needed layperson, there is just one PARTHO DATTA (The
not working. An over- was a combination of long- accessible essay — ‘Walk- Book Review)

FEBRUARY 2026 EDUCATIONWORLD 87