Transit City

Abstract

One of the cities where the rapid urbanisation of the global south is most eminent is Mumbai, the economic capital of India. Due to a rising economy over the last century millions of people migrated to the city. This urbanisation led to an enormous density and therefore prices of land exploded in the inner city. Due to its physical constrains – it is situated on a slender peninsula - the city expended along its railway lines towards the north and east, creating new communities around its stations. One of these border communities is Nala Sopara, located in the Vasai-Virar area about 50km north of the central fort district of Mumbai.
Due to the affordable land Nala Sopara grew exponentially over the last two decades from a small village settlement to a city on itself with over a million inhabitants.
To release pressure from the hearth of the metropole the state government is planning new infrastructural corridors. As a result, a new trainline is planned to connect the Vasai Virar area with Navi Mumbai which crosses through the eastern part of Nala Sopara, an area which is characterized by an urban sprawl of low-rise structures called baithi chawls.
Due to the clear relation between public transport and densification in the city one can argue that the area through which this trainline crosses will drastically change, as it already did in Mumbai and the central part of Nala Sopara.
My project tries to offer an alternative to the existing schemes of densification in relation to infrastructure. It aims to be an inclusive and resilient strategy for mass affordable housing in contrast to the current market driven neoliberal approach, and furthermore tries to embed itself in the existing context and future infrastructural development.