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our ideal open spaces

Our recommendations to the MCGM for a new Open Spaces Policy for Mumbai, 2019.

Pictograms of park activities and facilities

Love Your Parks Mumbai is a volunteer-driven organisation with the vision that one day every Mumbaikar will have unrestricted access to abundant, welcoming and user-friendly public open spaces.

In August 2019 the MCGM asked the public for inputs to a revised Open Spaces Policy for the maintenance and upkeep of all open spaces. These were our recommendations, based on research into what makes truly great public places, organised under the categories of the published notification.

1. Sustainability

1.1 Protecting existing green spaces

  1. 1.1.1 All existing open spaces marked as Recreation Grounds (RG), Play Grounds (PG), Parks (P) and Gardens (G) in the Development Plan must be given protected status to prevent encroachment and recategorisation for development. They cannot be taken over by builders, adjacent building societies or any organisations or foundations, even temporarily.
  2. 1.1.2 Open spaces such as national parks, rivers, beaches, promenades, wetlands, mangroves, rocky shores and other rock formations should also be included and given protected status.
  3. 1.1.3 Similarly, public swimming pools and RGs and PGs developed with clubs, societies and the like should also be included, and clearly marked OPEN TO ALL to avoid any confusion.
  4. 1.1.4 Avoid demarcating traffic islands as playgrounds in the Development Plan: they serve only an aesthetic purpose and cannot be used safely as playgrounds.
  5. 1.1.5 Every effort must be made to further the afforestation of open spaces.

1.2 Public–private partnership

  1. 1.2.1 It is the duty of the MCGM Garden Department “to provide recreational facilities to the citizens by developing reserved Open Spaces and maintaining the same” (Sankalan FAQs, MCGM website, 2019). Any private partnership for the management and maintenance of open spaces must hold no more than a 20% stake in the space, and special care must be taken to preserve its publicness and prevent encroachment.
  2. 1.2.2 The MCGM must retain the power to set and approve policies for open spaces, in consultation with citizens. Private entities should not be permitted to charge an entry fee, change timings, enforce their own policies or use open spaces for any private commercial purpose.
  3. 1.2.3 ALMs and citizens' associations partnering in the management or maintenance of open spaces must include members of all socio-economic backgrounds, abilities, genders and ages, to represent the needs of the whole community using the space.
  4. 1.2.4 All groups involved in managing and maintaining open spaces must conduct periodic workshops, surveys and studies with users to make sure the spaces serve the needs of all stakeholders (see 3.6).
  5. 1.2.5 A dedicated phone number for complaints should be provided, with the contact details of the area's municipal corporator and BMC ward office, and a complaints register kept at the entrance.

1.3 Water harvesting and drinking water

  1. 1.3.1 All the water needs of open spaces must be met by a water harvesting system. This makes each open space self-sustaining, which is crucial in times of water shortage.
  2. 1.3.2 Open spaces can also be used to harvest water from neighbouring areas.
  3. 1.3.3 Free, potable drinking water should be available in all open spaces, to discourage single-use plastic bottles.

1.4 Waste management and public toilets

  1. 1.4.1 Garbage bins with clear segregation signage must be provided so that there is no littering in open spaces.
  2. 1.4.2 Composting and mulching facilities must be available on site to deal with all organic waste, garden waste and dry leaves generated in the space.
  3. 1.4.3 All open spaces must have easily accessible, well-maintained public toilets that use grey water for flushing, with at least one toilet designated for persons with disabilities.

1.5 Flooding and wetlands

  1. 1.5.1 Open spaces can be used as emergency areas.
  2. 1.5.2 Some green open spaces can be designed to hold floodwater rather than letting the neighbourhood flood.
  3. 1.5.3 Increasing and protecting the city's wetlands will also help to mitigate flooding. They can be designed to capture runoff, improve water quality and provide natural wildlife habitat.

1.6 Temporary open spaces

  1. 1.6.1 Temporary open spaces can be created by closing certain roads to traffic on fixed days of the week (for example Equal Streets and Raahgiri Day). This is an effective, low-cost and quick way to add usable public space while the city waits to regain spaces lost to projects such as Metro construction, or for new open spaces to be completed.

2. Accessibility

2.1 Connectivity

  1. 2.1.1 Open spaces must be easy to reach on foot or by bicycle, with wide, unobstructed footpaths and safe cycle tracks leading to them (as per IRC:103-2012).
  2. 2.1.2 Frequent public transport to open spaces must be available, to reduce private vehicle use. A bicycle-sharing system would be a plus.
  3. 2.1.3 All open spaces must have a well-planned on-street parking management system: parking fees for private cars to avoid misuse of space, and adequate, free and safe bicycle parking.

2.2 Signage, wayfinding and mapping

  1. 2.2.1 All open spaces must have simple, consistent, multilingual and visual identification and directional signage that is easily visible from a distance.
  2. 2.2.2 Rules for using open spaces must be minimal, easy to understand and legible in Marathi, Hindi and English.
  3. 2.2.3 Informational signage should be available at each open space, with easy-to-understand icons for the main activities and facilities.
  4. 2.2.4 “Maintained by” signage should be consistent, within set dimensions, and only at entrances and two other points within the park. Visual clutter should be avoided.

2.3 Visual and physical accessibility

  1. 2.3.1 Open spaces must have minimal, see-through fencing (no solid walls), or no fencing where possible (for example Shivaji Park), so that they are easy to see from the surrounding streets.
  2. 2.3.2 Open spaces must have several entrances, placed near the closest public transport (a bus stop, for example), for easy access and to encourage use of all parts of the space.
  3. 2.3.3 Hawkers should not be allowed to encroach illegally on the public space around gardens and parks, making them hard to find or reach.

2.4 Access for people with disabilities

  1. 2.4.1 All open spaces must be easy to approach, enter and move around for people with disabilities.
  2. 2.4.2 All open spaces must have ramps and gentle slopes for wheelchair users, senior citizens and carers of babies and toddlers.

2.5 Safety

  1. 2.5.1 Open spaces and their surroundings are safer when they are well used at all times of day and all through the year. Use should therefore be encouraged by multi-use and cultural programming (see 3.3 and 3.4).
  2. 2.5.2 Security staff must be present at all times, with a training programme that builds their commitment to the upkeep of open spaces.
  3. 2.5.3 Adequate lighting must be provided for after-dark hours, instead of closing parks early.
  4. 2.5.4 All open spaces must have first-aid kits and equipment, and be easily accessible for emergency vehicles.

2.6 Seating

  1. 2.6.1 All open spaces must offer enough comfortable seating of different kinds: in the shade, movable, for groups and for individuals.

2.7 Timings and maintenance

  1. 2.7.1 Open spaces should be open during all daylight hours, and closing hours kept to an absolute minimum. We recommend that all parks open from 6 am to 10 pm at least, throughout the year, as announced by the BMC on 29 August 2019 after a meeting with several NGOs and stakeholders. In addition, 23 city parks were to stay open around the clock (Times of India, “From tomorrow, 23 city parks will stay open all day & night”, Vijay V. Singh).
  2. 2.7.2 Maintenance should be scheduled daily and cause the public as little inconvenience as possible.
  3. 2.7.3 A dedicated phone number for complaints should be provided, with the contact details of the area's municipal corporator and BMC ward office, and a complaints register kept at the entrance.

2.8 An open spaces app and website

  1. 2.8.1 A dedicated app and website should make all information about open spaces easy to find: the nearest open space and how to get there by public transport, notices of maintenance work, booking a slot and permission for a free class or workshop, the facilities available, and a way to report a problem. The website should also show the budgets allocated to open spaces and how they are spent.

3. Inclusivity

3.1 The ten-minute walk

  1. 3.1.1 Every Mumbaikar, in every neighbourhood, must have an open space within 800 metres, or a ten-minute walk, of home. New green spaces should be developed first in the parts of the city that lack them most.

3.2 Diversity

  1. 3.2.1 All open spaces must be accessible to people of all socio-economic backgrounds, abilities, genders and ages.
  2. 3.2.2 No fee should be charged to enter an open space.
  3. 3.2.3 Privatisation may lead to unequal access, benefiting only some neighbourhoods or companies.

3.3 Multi-use

  1. 3.3.1 People should have many reasons to be in an open space: recreation, picnics, rest, play, exercise, meeting people and entertainment. This extends use across the day and makes places attractive, vibrant and safe.
  2. 3.3.2 Free, safe Wi-Fi should be considered in designated parks, to encourage use for study and work.
  3. 3.3.3 Food and drink should be allowed in open spaces, with wet and dry waste bins (see 1.4). Education, workshops and signs can encourage zero-waste picnics with reusable or biodegradable cutlery and containers.
  4. 3.3.4 Well-designed cafés and food stalls can be encouraged in designated areas of some open spaces, to extend their use and support local jobs. Café owners and food vendors must be trained in sustainable waste management and make sure their waste is segregated, disposed of and composted at source by the end of each day.
  5. 3.3.5 Apart from toilets, a well-designed café or food stall and a playground for all ages, no other construction should be allowed. Offenders should be penalised and blacklisted, and the area redesigned to be accessible to all, under strict BMC guidelines.

3.4 Education, culture and volunteering

  1. 3.4.1 A core team of horticulturists, naturalists and rangers should be employed to study and maintain parks and to educate the public.
  2. 3.4.2 Regular, free, non-commercial and non-religious cultural programmes such as concerts, street plays, workshops and classes should be encouraged, with care to cause regular users as little inconvenience as possible.
  3. 3.4.3 Volunteering in maintenance and landscaping should be encouraged, to build a sense of stewardship among users.

3.5 Play for children

  1. 3.5.1 All open spaces must have a variety of safe play areas for children of different ages, with creative structures, water play, sand play and free play.
  2. 3.5.2 Play areas must be maintained regularly for safety, and broken equipment repaired immediately.

3.6 User involvement

  1. 3.6.1 Workshops and surveys with users of all ages and backgrounds should identify the needs of each community, and each space should be re-evaluated periodically to make sure it serves its purpose.

We strongly feel that if these inputs are holistically incorporated into a new Open Spaces Policy for Mumbai in the 21st century, the quality of life of all Mumbaikars can be substantially improved. Thank you for the invitation to share our recommendations; we look forward to studying the draft policy when it is open for public inputs.