MUMBAI: In a city that cherishes built-up area more than it does open spaces, the following numbers should not come as a shock – and yet they do. According to a survey of public open spaces in Bandra, Khar and Santacruz west, all in the BMC’s H-W ward, the per capita open space is merely 0.87 square metres for the 3.21 lakh population in this civic ward.
Within this, the survey found that the active play space per person was a meagre 0.15 sq m. This was way less than even the stated official per capita open space of 1.2 sq m in Mumbai, not to mention the World Health Organisation (WHO) minimum limit of 9 sq m, according to the survey. It was conducted by the Bombay Greenway, an urban planning foundation that believes in reimagining Mumbai through design, data and open space advocacy,
Not only is the per capita open space dismal, the survey found that about 30% of open spaces were restricted or had private access only. For every 1 sq m of public playground, 2.1 sq m was private and inaccessible in H-West ward. Many open spaces were locked for the major part of the day and less than 50% were unavailable during daytime hours, it revealed.
The survey also found that although H-West ward enjoys 4.2 km of promenade access for walking, it had zero swimming pools and zero water-based recreational facilities.
The team also mapped all the 41 parks and gardens, nine public playgrounds, 12 private playgrounds, four water bodies, and four promenades in the area, including its details such as location, timings and even entry fees levied. “The idea was to raise awareness about neighbourhood parks among residents and help them to reclaim them and prevent them from falling into private hands,” said Anca Florescu Abraham, co-founder of the foundation, and who has led the ‘Love Your Parks Mumbai’ initiative. “This project emerged out of pure frustration and our attempts to keep parks equitable and accessible for all,” she said.
The foundation also suggests aligning redevelopment intensity with open-space capacity, ensuring fair, incentive-based public access to institutional grounds and standardising access, timing, lighting, security and signage across parks in Mumbai. It also suggests that streets be treated as part of the open space system, and residual public land be reclaimed even as existing public grounds should be protected.
Civic activist Zoru Bhathena said more than apathy, there is a deliberate attempt to ignore open spaces, and let them get encroached and fall to ruin. Then they are handed over to private organisations, he said.
Stalin Dayanand of environmental NGO Vanashakti said parks must be planned and allocated according to the population of an area. “No one talks of open space when they are being handed over to builders. Why not take them back and plant trees in them? The city has 3,500 acres of forest land, which doesn’t reflect in the records,” he said, urging citizens to speak up.
Assistant municipal commissioner, H-West ward, Dinesh Pallewad, was shown the survey results. He said he would do what he could for the parks in the ward.
Ends
On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 11:00 PM Hepzi Anthony
Thanks Carol. It’s Bombay Greenway, which is a foundation. I got it wrong.
Also, is it possible to add in the copy….
Bombay Greenway suggested aligning redevelopment intensity with open-space capacity, ensuring fair, incentive-based public access to institutional grounds and standardising access, timing, lighting, security and signage across parks in Mumbai. It also suggested that streets be treated as part of the open space system and reclaim leftover and residual public land even as it should protect its existing public grounds.