Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC’s) plan to construct a large underground sports complex and parking facility beneath the Mahalaxmi Racecourse—which HT first reported in August 2025—has drawn sharp criticism from members of the Mumbai Architects Collective, who describe the 500-acre expanse not as a mere amenity but a critical environmental asset for the city.
The Collective, comprising over 100 prominent architects, urban designers and planners, has written to the BMC arguing that the Racecourse performs an indispensable hydrological function in a low-lying coastal metropolis chronically vulnerable to flooding.
The grounds, they said, act as a natural holding pond during heavy rainfall and high tide, allowing stormwater from surrounding areas, including Mahalaxmi and Parel, to collect and gradually percolate into the soil. Converting large swathes of this permeable land into waterproof underground structures would render the surface increasingly impervious and weaken Mumbai’s climate resilience, they warned.
“The Mahalaxmi Racecourse is one of Mumbai’s last large, contiguous, natural grounds. In a low-lying coastal city with chronic flooding, this matters enormously. Natural ground absorbs rainwater, allows groundwater recharge, and reduces flood risk in the surrounding area. These are not incidental benefits; they are critical urban infrastructure functions,” the Mumbai Architects Collective stated in their letter to municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani on Thursday.
The group has also questioned the financial priorities underpinning the proposal, asking how ₹600 crore is being earmarked for the project at a time when authorities have cited a lack of funds to manage 70 hectares (roughly 173 acres) of open spaces along the Mumbai Coastal Road.
The development comes at a time when the Bombay High Court recently observed that the ecosystem services provided by Sanjay Gandhi National Park are valued at over ₹15 lakh crore.
The Collective argued that while the Racecourse is not a forest, the principle remains the same: every natural surface in the city contributes to flood mitigation and groundwater recharge. They cautioned that basements, parking structures and underground facilities would permanently compromise this drainage function for infrastructure “that is neither necessary nor environmentally prudent.”
Open maidans, they contended, do not require expensive landscaping. A natural, playable surface is “sufficient and democratic,” cheaper to maintain and accessible without entry barriers. The Collective maintained that the current proposal is being presented as a park upgrade when, in fact, it is “a major infrastructure project”.
Underground parking and constructed sports facilities, they said, are capital-intensive, expensive to build and even more expensive to ventilate, light, secure and maintain over decades. Such projects, they added, inevitably introduce access controls and alter the character of public grounds, often permanently.
Architect Rahul Kadri, principal architect at IMK Architects, was unequivocal. “The Racecourse is an environmental asset, not just an amenity,” he said.
Questioning the practicality of the proposal, he added, “They are constructing an underground sports facility and stadium. Who is going to manage it? The main thing is that the entire arena is low-lying, and all the water in Parel when it rains acts like a holding pond in a major storm during high tide, and then the water percolates into the ground slowly. It is a huge open space—500 acres. If they are going to construct a parking lot and sports stadium underground and make it waterproof, where will all that water go? Ecologically, with climate change, we are more concerned about these things. Instead of that, the BMC is making 500 acres more impervious. It doesn’t make sense sustainability-wise, open space-wise wise nor climate change-wise.”
Architect PK Das echoed these concerns: “Our concerns are environmental and ecological, where the ground will not be able to absorb the rainwater. If you look at the area, this is the lowest point. So, in case of heavy rain, this becomes like a holding pond, and it soaks up the rainwater. Once you build underground, one will not have anything.”
Das added that the bulk of the area, which is the heart of the Racecourse, will have construction underground. “We are not against the public park and the forest, which is wonderful. People should have more parks and gardens. The central area cannot have trees anyway, as it will be used for the races. But with construction underground, with every plot in Mumbai, the soil isn’t getting adequate nourishment. As a result, the soil will dry up, and the water table will keep going down due to these kinds of underground constructions,” he said.
When contacted, Gagrani described the proposal as being at a preliminary stage. “It is at a conceptual stage only. This isn’t the first time that we have shared this. Are we going to construct anything without taking into consideration the flooding aspect? It is a thematic conceptual drawing.”
At present, the civic body has roped in the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) to conduct a study for a pedestrian subway linking the Acharya Atre Chowk Metro station to the Racecourse and the Coastal Road’s parking hub at Haji Ali.
“We have called for the tenders. That study is being conducted by MMRCL because they are experts in tunnel work, and it is at the tender stage. For the rest of the part, like the theme park at the Racecourse, underground parking, et al, there is no tender nor estimates drawn yet,” Gagrani said.
Responding to criticism that any construction, even underground, would undermine the integrity of the grounds, he added, “First, they opposed construction overground. Now they are saying there should be no construction, even underground.”
Questions have also been raised about long-term maintenance, particularly given the civic body’s financial constraints in maintaining other open spaces. When asked about the maintenance of the proposed theme garden, especially since the Coastal Road open spaces are to be maintained by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Gagrani said, “Not just RIL, a lot of NGOs like RPG and Welspun are also maintaining small islands and gardens. But, in the case of the Racecourse, it isn’t decided because, I reiterate, it is at a conceptual stage and not at a tender stage.”