Mumbai

• Location: Site

  • Number of islands next to a deep-water harbour
• Location: Situation

  • Mumbai is located on the west coast of India on the Arabian Sea
  • It is located in the state of Maharashtra
  • Much of the land is low-lying, just above sea level
• Connectivity

  • Mumbai has India's 2nd largest port with a waterfront that is 10km allowing huge port development and manufacturing industries nearby
  • Being on the west coast makes it closed to Europe via the Suez canal
  • Shipping times to Europe are 5 days less than Kolkata on the east coast
• Structure: City centre

  • CBD is not in the centre but near the tip of the island
  • CBD includes important HQs including Bank of India, Cadbury India, Microsoft India and Tata
  • Some industrial areas are near the port, but many have moved out to places such as Navi (New) Mumbai where the land is cheaper
• Structure: Inner suburbs

  • Wealthy suburb areas are inner city areas along the harbour, close to the CBD
  • Some of this area is squatter and slum settlements including Dharavi
• Structure: Outer suburbs

  • Developed along the railways, including suburbs from the 1970s
  • Railways allowed commuters to travel into the city each day, including from Navi (New) Mumbai
  • New Mumbai was planned in a low density suburb where lower land prices would create a better quality of life
• Structure: Urban-rural fringe

  • Rural areas are found where the area is not suitable for building e.g. river estuary land and marshland that flood frequently
• Housing types


  • Wealthy suburb areas are inner city areas along the harbour, close to the CBD
  • Middle-low income groups live in the older parts of the city
  • Low income groups live in chawls (80% of homes are single rooms)
  • The poorest 60% live in informal homes
  • Thousands live on the streets
• Population growth

  • Due to natural increase (the birth rate is higher than the death rate) and rural – urban migration
  • From 2001 to 2011: the population increased by 3.4 million in the whole conurbation – 50% natural increase & 50% rural – urban migration
  • Population density is high: 20,792 people per km2
• Push factors for rural-urban migration

  • Difficult rural conditions make is harder to make a living from farming
  • Few services in rural India – education & healthcare is basic
  • There are few leisure or entertainment facilities
  • New farming techniques have meant fewer jobs in agriculture
• Pull factors for rural-urban migration

  • Rapid economic growth has created a huge range of jobs, from high skilled to small-scale service jobs & low-skilled manual labour
  • More education opportunities – there are 12 universities
  • Literacy rate is 95%
  • Wider range of healthcare options
  • Wages are higher, even for low-skilled jobs
• Opportunities

  • Rise in the opportunities available in the service sector
  • Finance and IT services provide highly skilled jobs
  • Globalisation means that TNCs have made FDI in Mumbai
  • Boom in the service sector for low skilled Mumbaiker providing services to other residents: taxi services, cleaners, hairdressers, mechanics, recycling
  • Businesses in Dharavi are valued at £350m per year
  • Its population is estimated at over 1 million (its population density is 11 times higher than the rest of Mumbai)
  • People have access to services they would not have in rural areas, e.g. satellite tv provided by low-cost satellite dishes
• Challenges

  • Rapid expansion – means new housing is put in areas without shops, bus services, schools or healthcare
  • It's also been too rapid for waster disposal, which has caused pollution problems for the Mithi River
  • Along with the dumping of 800m tonnes of untreated sewage, the river is polluted by batters, metals, oil and industrial waste
  • Traffic congestion – there are 1.8m cars in Mumbai
  • Overcrowding on the railways – 8m people travel by train every day
  • Lack of affordable housing (rents are among the highest in the world)
  • Slum housing – chawls (old tenement buildings which are overcrowded & in danger of collapse) & squatter settlements (homes people build themselves)
  • Problems with water supply – people use standpipes
  • Problems with sanitation – people use streams & rivers (625 people per toilet)
  • Not enough water for washing so people wash clothes in streams and rivers
• Contrast within Mumbai

  • Government is inefficient & bureaucratic – it takes a long time for planning permission to be given
  • Most property is rent controlled – there is a limit how high rents can be. This discourages landlords from making improvements
  • Corruption – areas that were supposed to be redeveloped with affordable housing were sold to property developers
  • 40% of people live in squatter settlements, 20% live in chawls and 10% on the streets
  • Over 60% work in informal employment
  • Most common causes of death in Dharavi: malnutrition, diarrhoea, dehydration, typhoid
  • Literacy: 69% (rest of Mumbai 91%)
  • Average no. of people per home – between 13 & 17
  • Average size home 10m2
• Sustainability: Top Down - Vision Mumbai

  • Partnership between government, property companies & investors
  • Planned to: building 1m low cost homes and reduce slums, improve transport infrastructure, improve air and water quality
  • Quick wins: restore 325 green spaces formerly used for dumping waste, build 300 extra public toilets, widen & beautify main roads, improve train capacity and safety
  • Successes? By 2007, 200,000 people moved & 45,000 homes demolished in Dharavi – replaced by flats. BUT these have split communities & rent costs more, also small businesses had to move or go out of business
  • Many residents believe it only benefits the rich
  • Still problems: water quality is worsening because of sewage discharge, beaches are unsafe & slums are growing rapidly
• Sustainability: Bottom Up - LSS Health Charity

  • Health charity to tackle leprosy (a slow growing, contagious bacterial disease)
  • It was set in 1976, raises its own funds and uses volunteers
  • It surveys communities to detect skin diseases, sets up skin clinics, runs pharmacies, runs kindergartens
  • In the 1980s it had 4000 leprosy patients, by 2007 cases had reduced to 219
  • It treated 28,000 people for leprosy, of whom 75% were cured
  • It now works with patients who have TB
  • It employs 5 teachers to carry out education work: SET (Survey, Education & Treatment)
  • It teaches people about the symptoms & about care and treatment
  • Much of its work is with women focusing on sanitation (boiling drinking water, washing hands before preparing food)
  • Education about worms composting waste (vermiculture), which can be sold
  • It is a small scale local scheme, it is not city wide or country wide