BMC Moves to Rezone Open Spaces, Including Bandra Ground, Amid Policy Limbo

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has moved to alter reservations on several public open spaces across the city, including plans to make the Neville D’Souza Football Ground in Bandra Reclamation available for a convention centre, prompting renewed scrutiny over Mumbai’s decade-long policy vacuum on open spaces.

In recent weeks, the civic body has moved ahead with plans to change the reservations of nearly half a dozen open spaces or laid out proposals to do so, overriding objections from resident groups, citizen forums, activists, and MLAs from governing parties. In addition to the proposed convention centre at Bandra Reclamation, the civic administration has laid out plans to rezone open spaces for purposes such as a petrol pump and a temple precinct revamp.

Among the latest sites affected is a plot in Jogeshwari’s Ambivli, where the BMC has proposed deleting the reservation for a garden and park on 1,840 square metres of land housing a temple, merging the plot with an adjoining residential zone.

Citizen groups and opposition politicians have attributed the situation to the absence of a permanent policy to regulate open spaces across the city. They pointed out that without expert contractors and amid budget cuts, public parks and gardens have fallen into neglect.

The city's last open spaces policy was put on hold in 2016 by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis following a public and political outcry over provisions that allowed private players to adopt open spaces. While the BMC has drafted multiple policies since then, those drafts faced substantial criticism and were subsequently shelved.

With attention drawn to the rezoning and takeover of multiple sites, citizens and NGOs have demanded that a permanent policy be fast-tracked. They noted that the BJP, the governing party in the BMC, committed in its 2026 city polls manifesto to protecting all civic-maintained public open spaces and completely barring private participation or caretaker leases.