After all that talk of turning Mumbai into a Shanghai or Singapore, the Maharashtra government may now end up looking West — to New York.

Concerned over Indian resistance to change and antiquated laws that do not match those of world-class cities, the World Bank has advocated an FSI policy like New York — the FSI is the ratio of the total floor area of buildings on a certain location to the size of the land of that location, or the limit imposed on such a ratio.

Senior World Bank officials, who visited Mumbai last week for meetings with government officials, have expressed concern over both issues. “It is a controversial place... there are a dozen different opinions argued very strongly,” Constance A Bernard, World Bank’s Director, Sustainable Development Unit, South Asia Region, told The Indian Express. “It is inevitable in a democratic process... but we find that the pitch is very high here.”

The World Bank has expressed concern over the “noise” made by the media, environmentalists and people in general whenever new projects are announced. Bank officials feel that Mumbai can be transformed into a world-class city, but there are too many laws that need to be amended — some by the local government, others by the federal government to facilitate development on par with metropolitan cities in the world.

“Take for instance, the problem of housing the ever increasing population. There are too many people competing against one another for buying a house. This has to be changed and the housing stock has to be increased,” said Songsu Choi, World Bank’s Lead Urban Economist. “Here there are too many regulations. In New York, the minimum FSI is 8 while in Mumbai it is 1.33.”

... contd.