Why experts fear Mumbai is building heat traps

Behind a tall blue gate, a construction site in central Mumbai bustles with trucks and cranes, and workers wearing red and yellow hard-hats. Beyond the far fence stands a row of old barrack-like structures. And, beyond them still, new apartment towers rise into the clouds.

Here, in the heart of Mumbai, an ambitious project is underway to replace century-old tenements, across 37 hectares of land, with modern housing and commercial complexes. Known as chawls, the tenements were built by the Bombay Development Department, or BDD.

The question of what the redevelopment of these BDD chawls should look like has been a contentious one.

In Worli, the largest site, the government-sanctioned plan is putting up a forest of buildings of up to 40 and 60 storeys. An alternative proposal by local architects and planners would have had half the built-up area, balancing smaller blocks with a sports ground and other public facilities.

These divergent visions – and the brief battle between them in the courts – throw up important questions about the future of urban housing in an era of climate change.

In India, according to one estimate, urbanisation will create a demand for 25 million more affordable homes by 2030. Given the pressures on land, many of the new buildings will...

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