Hariprakash Pandey, the vice-president of finance at Housing Development and Infrastructure, a major property developer based in Mumbai and one of the largest slum rehabilitation companies in India, talks about the hurdles developers are facing to secure land in Mumbai.
Could you talk about the issues that Mumbai is facing in terms of space?
The problem with Mumbai is the way the city has developed as an island city. Mumbai has a very long coastal zone area and most of the time there are regulations which don't permit high-rise buildings to be made close to the coastal zones. If you look at the eastern part of the city, which has mangroves, because of environmental reasons those lands have not been opened up. If you look at other cities, the airports are normally outside the city. As the city started to grow, it has come right into the heart of Mumbai. Because of this you can't have high-rise structures in a radius of 15 to 20 kilometres around it. The space which is available today can often only come in the form of redevelopment.
What are the other factors?
Because the city is so vibrant, there are so many job opportunities, that people from all across India come to Bombay. There was no affordable housing policy for these people, so they went ahead and kind of encroached on government land.
Which areas can be redeveloped?
The only way of getting the land for real estate development is either you go and look at some of the old textile mills that have got shut down, and those have been converted to real estate, or you approach some of the old colonies. You will have to go and convince the tenants, demolish the building and make the building again, or you go to the slums. You speak to the slum-dwellers and convince them to rehabilitate them and free up the land for either infrastructure development or use it for real estate development. In Bombay, you have to put in a lot of effort and time to get the land.
Aren't high-rise buildings the easy solution to Mumbai's shortage of space?
The drainage system we have in the cities is 100 years old. When you make high-rise structures, you are populating the city again and again. It could be a solution if it's backed by infrastructure. The city is struggling with the water supply, electricity, parking spaces.
business@thenational.ae
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950