1. Don’t lose your waterfront. It will be hard to get it
back.’
Published: Sunday, Jan 31, 2010, 0:20 IST
By Labonita Ghosh | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
Richard A Plunz, director of Urban Design Lab, Earth Institute, at Columbia University in the US, agrees that
developing a city’s waterfront can be a complicated issue, with warring agencies and problems at multiple
levels. But cities can learn from each other to resolve this, he tells DNA.
What is the importance of a waterfront?
There is a temptation to see the waterfront as a recreation and leisure space, and this gets reflected in the
market because in cities everywhere, the most expensive housing is on the waterfront. There is a pattern to
this: If you take away industry and shipping from the port area, you start building condominiums.
Unfortunately, this model of development doesn’t go very much further; it becomes something of a mono-
functional infrastructure. In Mumbai, as in many other cities on water around the world, the port area is very
valuable as infrastructure. It should be flexible and diverse, and try to strike a balance between rail, ferry and
vehicular transport. For, if you let the infrastructure of a city go, you’ll never get it back. In New York, we’ve
tried to put in a more developed ferry service for the city. But the patterns are already set, and it’s difficult to
retroactively establish it.
Two big problems plaguing the idea of developing Mumbai’s eastern waterfront appear to be those of
slum clearance and of multiple agencies holding authority over this area. How can these be resolved?
A port is very crucial, but needs to be better integrated with the city and its workings. In Mumbai, squatters
make up 60 per cent of the population, so where they live becomes an issue. We tend to think of squatters as
illegitimate and are constantly trying to legitimise them. I am, however, sympathetic with both sides. The
Mumbai Port Trust (MPT) has to run a business, but this business that is different from that of the squatters.
Yet they are bound in a symbiotic relationship. People are very important to a city. If you move people to
places where they have hour-long commutes, you will remove a vital sub-economy of the city, and won’t get it
back. Even the sub-economy is important to make a city thrive.
Therefore, there needs to be a negotiation to resolve this problem. Dharavi, with its residents carrying out vital
functions like recycling, is a dream for cities like New York where they’re sending their garbage 300-400 miles
away for recycling. Looking from the other side, you might think the land occupied by squatters is more
valuable for something else. But land use is a short-term profit; the human potential is more long term and
substantial.
This problem of integrating a port with the city is not peculiar to Mumbai. It happened in New York too, 40
years ago, when containerisation and the shipping business moved out of the port area because of a lack of
space. The locality was taken over for recreation, housing and such. Now there is a strong response to try and
bring shipping back to the port area, but it’s too late.
Officials are trying to keep whatever is left of the port and kickstart economic development there by creating
jobs and promoting production. But this is difficult to do retroactively. New York went too far in the other
direction, by replacing production with service sectors like finance and business. In Mumbai, which has a
diverse economy, integration between the port and city can be worked out creatively.
What about multiple authorities?
This can only be resolved politically and, again, through negotiation. We had this problem in New York as well,

2. where a new entity, the Port Authority of New York, was created to deal with various stakeholders and
agencies. But first there had to be an agreement between all of them that the situation would improve only if
they all worked together. A similar thing can happen in Mumbai if agencies in the city, Navi Mumbai and
various other regions come together
You have to correlate all these agencies to maintain the economic advantage of a city. You can’t have
separate agencies working separately, and against each other. In New York, the airport and certain aspects of
transportation have come under the new Port Authority, primarily because officials realised that air freight is
crucial to the economy, and created connections between the various agencies. In fact, the most advanced
planning correlates different infrastructure amenities and systems together, and places like Kobe in Japan and
Valparaiso in Chile, have achieved this.
New York has seen the downside of losing a port area when containerisation left. The Port Authority still has
parts of the waterfront, but sections of the old port area have gone under other controls, especially those that
have been redeveloped. We still have one small port area and the community residing there is very vocal
about keeping it as it is because livelihood depends on it. They are forcing officials to rethink on how port
functions, recreational functions and spin-off production functions can all work together in the same area, and
not in huge isolated pieces. That argument holds true of Mumbai. Besides, there is enough port activity for
everyone in Mumbai; other large facilities can be developed elsewhere in the city too, and need not be
concentrated only in the peninsula
What ‘creative’ solutions would you advocate?
In Mumbai, as elsewhere in the world, ports are no longer just shipping operations. They are also real estate
operations because of the land they own. For instance, in New York the port authorities built the World Trade
Center and, till recently, were the ‘landlords’. They put rail connections under the towers and transport
infrastructure all around, mainly to maintain commercial activity in lower Manhattan. But this was also an
investment for the city. The situation in Mumbai is more complex — and it’s also a later time.
What has been the experience of other cities with waterfront-port area development?
In Kobe after the 1995 earthquake, everything had to be rebuilt. Luckily, the government had the investment to
do it and came up with an integrated solution. But all cities don’t get this chance of a makeover. I don’t think
anyone has found an ideal answer to integrating the ‘informal’ sector [squatters etc] with the more ‘formal’
work of development. It’s more complicated than having the money for it; it’s a social capital issue.
It’s been relatively easy to take care of this problem in older Western cities. London has considerable
docklands, but they were largely abandoned by the time they started to develop. So also New York. In fact,
New York in the 1880-90s was what Mumbai is today, with a different economic situation. Antwerp comes
closest to the ideal of understanding the relationship of a port to a city and its expansion. Even authorities in
London and New York have tried to take lessons from it.
On the other hand, places like Istanbul, which had a very dense ferry system, discovered the disadvantage of
sidelining this. It started building bridges — about three or four across the Basra — and traffic was worse than
ever. There were bottlenecks at various points. In Seoul, the mayor actually dismantled an elevated highway
and ‘brought back’ a river that had been channelled to run under the city. Putting the river back has traffic
working better, and both the eco-system and the weather have improved.
What are the lessons for Mumbai in this?
The mayors of cities across the world need to talk to each other in a non-political, non-threatening space.
Unfortunately, there is no United Nations for mayors. But if New York, Shanghai and Mumbai were to engage
in dialogue, they would find they have a lot to learn from each other. In June, we plan to have a New York-
Shanghai mayor’s exchange. Self-education can happen more efficiently by exchanging problems and

3. solutions.
Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development Forum
Planning for port development / Dholera-
India.
Posted By: R. Sudarshana
Date: Monday, 7 June 1999, at 5:49 a.m.
Key words: environmental monitoring, salt extraction, sedimentation, tidal lands.
INTRODUCTION
I wrote last time about Bhavnagar Bhal where development has taken its toll (The repercussions
of salt extraction / Bhavnagar Bhal-India), especially on the availability of drinking water in
coastal villages. Let me now tell you another story, well - it is not yet a story. What do you say
for a stage that is the beginning point for a story, an embryo? a blue print? Well, something like
that. Dholera is the beginning of a story and the world will hear about it for a long time. From
our side, we have tried through all the best possible means to see that the project follows a path
of collective wisdom. Well, we are trying to see that we have a wise coastal practice.
A FLOURISHING PORT IN PAST CENTURIES
Dholera is actually the name of a village some 25 km inland from the coast at the northern tip of
Bhavnagar Bhal in Gujarat on the banks of Gulf of Cambay. It appears that until early in the last
century, Dholera was right on the coast and was a flourishing port with a prosperous trade. It was
in the right sense a gateway for India and Arabs, Babylonians and Caucasians carried out
import/export activities through Dholera. Dholera was a sea front with a deep water channel and
the tidal amplitude of the order of 10 m made it a good port for deep draft vessels. Big vessels
that were anchored in deeper waters rushed to the port at the right tide and downloaded the cargo
before the tide receded. Even at low tide, draft was good in a channel called Malcolm channel
and the trade went on like a song. Everyone was happy.
END OF LITTLE ICE AGE
The little ice age ended sometime around 18th - 19th century and the global warming similar to
Eemian interglacial period started a couple of centuries back. It also coincided with the industrial

4. revolution and large scale destruction of forests began in greener parts of India. Indian railways
were also exanding their routes and wooden sleepers were in great demand. Forests disappeared
while the warming induced rains flooded the catchment areas of 4 rivers that flowed into the
Gulf of Cambay (GOC). Since the Central and Western Indian top soil was unprotected now,
sedimentation took place in the GOC and large sediment banks started developing. Approach
channels to Dholera became shallower and Dholera itself fell from nature's grace. There started
unprecedented and hitherto unknown siltation at Dholera and the coast grew beyond the harbour
into the sea of yesteryears. Time was over for Dholera and it moved back gently inland. Trade
collapsed, fickle fortune faded, hearts broke and poverty crept in. Moonlighting became a part of
history.
COAST OF DHOLERA TODAY
Today, with Dholera being far inland, the coast is a huge expanse of tidal flat. Some areas are
quite well stabilised and some are still settling down. Thousands of acres of this low land (about
1 or 2 m above MSL) are riddled with tidal creeks and are mostly barren. A few villages in the
vicinity are on the periphery of the tidal flat which itself is confined as a peninsula between two
large creeks. Nothing grows here and except for the peripheral villages, no one lives in the
Dholera tidal flats. It is hostile, no doubt, but in the minds of villagers - a deity presides over the
flat and protects them. Therefore, there is a temple in the middle of the tidal flat where the lamp
is always kept alight by the villagers. By turn, they go there everyday, pray for the return of
prosperity and have learnt not to say 'no' to hope. Over generations, these coastal communities
have learnt to depend less on coastal resources. They now tend the camels, grow cotton in one
season outside the tidal flat, collect salt from the peninsula, but are constantly aware that their
security is linked to whatever goes on in the sea. Hence, the tideland deity is important.
A NEW STORY BEGINS NOW
The Gujurat maritime board realised some time back that the GOC coast cannot be developed
efficiently for tourism and living resources. Due to very hostile conditions, it is not all that
attractive for any pleasant activity. In terms of biodiversity and biomass, there is not much to
speak of in comparision to other areas. The only reasonable path to glory is to industrialise the
coastal zone and build ports. Why not ! The nearest port that serves central and northern India is
Bombay and a large country like this can be serviced well with a few ports in GOC. Due to a
sparse population on the north west coast of GOC, a lack of resources, no private land holding
and a hostile environment, there would not be much opposition to development projects. The
maritime board announced an opportunity to Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) ports in
the region by the private sector. One of the largest industrial houses of India came forward to
build an all weather modern port on Dholera sea front. Dholera they chose, because it would
invoke historical pride in people and the entire peninsular tidal flat of more than 400 sq.km is
just available for the asking. The whole region could be turned into an industrial park supporting
and drawing from the port facilities. People of the region, politicians, the maritime board and
investors are all too eager for the opera to begin. The beginning bell rang in January 1999.
WHAT IS IN THE OFFING ?

5. The port company has already engaged a multinational company to develop a detailed project
report for the all weather port. Odds of nature will be fought down by the marvels of engineering
and the might of money. A 20 km long road has just been laid in the middle of the tidal flat
connecting Dholera village to the sea front. Towards the end of this year, constructions would
begin. First, there would be a ship breaking yard which can absorb the overflow from Alang that
happens to be world's largest and is about 120 km south. Then there would be berths for salt
export. Meanwhile, new berths and jetties would be built along with an industrial park.
Thousands of people would start living here, the tidal flat would change its face and the economy
of the region is set to boom. For the local communities, the tide land deity has opened up her
eyes.
GOOD, BAD AND THE UGLY
First the GOOD. The port company has planned to draw fresh water to the project site through
pipelines from a very long distance. The pipeline would pass through several villages and the
locals have been assured of water. The local community would be suitably employed in the port
project. Educational institutions of the port project will be open to the locals. In a remote village
near to the port site, a surface tank will be built to collect rain water. The tide land deity will
have a new temple and a good motorable road. The coastline will be protected from erosion and
siltation over a wide area. All environmental regulations will be followed (hopefully) by
ensuring representation for scientists on the advisory board. Bhavnagar university will have good
access to the project site for scientific and sociological studies during the formative years. Proper
satellite based surveys to analyse long term scenarios, and modelling studies to assess the
environment are being taken up by the port.
Now, let us see the BAD. The project will increase the commercial activities of salt extraction in
the Bhavnagar Bhal. Already, long before the operational phase of the port, MOUs have been
signed by salt companies with the port for the export of millions of tonnes of salt. While the
project site may provide good life conditions, life may turn out to be unpleasant beyond the
radius of a certain distance. Dredging in the port site and erosion protection around the seafront
may affect other areas that are safe till now. Conscious researchers may not get enough funding
support to study evolving scenarios. In India, no body gives you funds if you say 'something is
coming up there and I want to follow the developments.' Rather, funds would come if you say
'this thing has come up and I want to study its effects.'
What could be UGLY? Economically weaker sections like the labour communities may evolve
very unhygienic living conditions like in Alang. Due to the changed morphology of the tidal
flats, vector borne diseases like malaria, dengue and plague may wreak havoc like they did in a
town on the other side of GOC some years back. Today, port development is in the hands of only
a few managers who are very receptive to scientific advice. Tomorrow, due to the size of the
operations, there would be many managers and not everyone may heed to advice and the system
may work on its own with not everything under timely control.
Well friends, that is it. Stories of coastal management begin everywhere almost everyday. But
not many of them begin like this in the barren tidal lands where nothing exists. While on the one
hand, total planning is easier for areas like this, concessions from the rule position are also easier

6. extracted in areas like this. And it is only after a while that we realise what could have been
wiser.
MORALS OF THE STORY
1. Industrialization of the coast is inevitable and in some areas, it is the only wise option.
2. Practical vision for the future in totality is not really possible.
3. Wise practice is a contemporary truth and must change and evolve as situations develop.
Hence it is a dynamic concept. You have to allow things to happen, watch constantly and
perhaps change the original thoughts with changing times.
4. Never say 'no' to hope.
5. You may not get funds to follow the beginning of coastal stories, but follow them somehow.