Mumbai Port Complex

Sustainable urban growth through visionary planning

The Mumbai Port Trust area, spanning about 10km along the eastern coast, is one of the best waterfront properties located in the heart of Mumbai city. Due to the shifting of port activity to competing ports across the bay, an area of approximately 500ha is available for redevelopment. Considering the extreme shortage of built space in South Mumbai, this underutilized land offers a great opportunity to fulfil the demand for space in a growing city.

BuroHappold Engineering has been appointed to provide strategic support for the masterplan for the development. Our aim is to expose the untapped commercial value of the client’s land asset, using smart infrastructure to redevelop the area as an international destination for tourism and recreation. This brownfield site necessitates a masterplan for urban growth that is inclusive, sustainable and environmentally friendly, the client’s aim being to achieve a world-class physical development plan backed by a sustainable economic strategy.

CHALLENGE 

The primary challenge that the team face is devising a plan that meets the changing aspirations of the city of Mumbai. The population has grown enormously and there is a need for new public transport, parking, cycling highways, entertainment hubs, heritage tourism destinations, cultural and convention centres, open space, plazas, walkways, and promenades.

It is imperative that we understand and respond to the site’s complex existing land-use patterns, comprising land that has been leased to various public and private tenants. Our work planning the infrastructure will need to define a new land-use pattern to meet the city’s growing demand for open public spaces, recreational facilities, and public amenities.

SOLUTION

We are currently conducting a review of the preliminary concept masterplan, assessing the demand for power, water, traffic, and parking across the whole development. Our review will include preliminary suggestions for sustainable transport, energy, and water resource management systems.

At the draft review stage, we will suggest high level strategies for transport, energy, water and waste. We will also provide conceptual layouts for road, primary water supply, foul and storm water drainage, HV electrical power, and primary fixed telecoms networks. The masterplan includes provisions for a primary utilities plant; we will identify the location and land-take of the plant and any HV substations, district cooling plant, sewage treatment plant, and waste transfer stations.

Our first concern is to tackle the challenges posed by the development’s energy, transport and sustainability needs. We will handle the technical issues, then look wider than the immediate space of the project to help our client understand and address its social, financial and environmental impacts. This way, we will preserve heritage structures like the Sewri Fort and Ghadiyal Godi clock tower as well as the native mudflats and mangroves.

VALUE 

BuroHappold has been appointed to this regenerative project due to our experience working on similarly challenging and complex developments around the world. Our knowledge, alongside that of our collaborator, will enable understanding of the existing and future infrastructure of Mumbai Port Complex, allowing for sustainable and economically viable urban growth.