MUMBAI: The decision to unlock and monetise vast tracts of government land – almost 18% of Mumbai’s habitable area – has been condemned by prominent citizens and citizens’ groups, who are calling it the “privatisation of the city’s future”.
In a letter to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar on Wednesday, urban planners, senior (retd) IAS, IPS and naval officers, environmentalists and activists have warned against the “irreversible transfer of public assets into private hands”.
Titled “Citizens’ concerns against privatisation of public land”, the letter refers to the unlocking of land owned by both the central and state governments for development and massive redevelopment projects.
This virtual garage sale of government land by government agencies such as MHADA, SRA, MMRDA and MbPA, was highlighted by Hindustan Times in a report on September 11, 2025, titled “18% of city’s real estate opened up by govt for development”.
“These lands were originally reserved to serve the people of Mumbai — for housing, open spaces, amenities, transport and public infrastructure. Instead, they are being steadily diverted to private interests in the name of ‘revenue generation’, with no coherent policy, no transparency and no accountability to the citizens who are the real stakeholders,” the letter states.
“The outcome is visible: the loss of affordable housing, displacement of long-settled communities, shrinking open spaces, and irreversible transfer of public assets into private hands. The so-called ‘monetisation’ of public land is, in effect, the privatisation of the city’s future,” the letter adds.
Among the signatories to the letter are former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Ribeiro; former chief of naval staff admiral Vishnu Bhagwat (Retd); former central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi; environmentalists Debi Goenka and Stalin Dayanand; Anuradha Parmar of the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI); and RTI activist Bhaskar Prabhu.
Some of the organisations that have endorsed the letter are the Mumbai Vikas Samiti, Bombay Catholic Sabha, Amchi Mumbai Amchi BEST, Moneylife Foundation, NGO Alliance for Governance and Renewal (NAGAR) and Centre for Democratic Rights.
Rejecting the idea of utilising public land as a financial resource to fill fiscal gaps or fund projects, they point out that land held by public bodies once alienated can never be recovered.
They state that public land must be placed in a public trust and should be taken off the market. The government must prioritise housing, open spaces, education, healthcare and transportation over commercial gains. It must also offer full disclosure and subject itself to an independent review before decisions are taken on public land.
During the course of their careers, these prominent citizens have crusaded to safeguard public assets, demanded transparency in governance, and never hesitated to use legal means to wrest back for citizens what is rightfully theirs.
To restore integrity and accountability, they are now demanding that the state government issue a white paper detailing all public land transactions, leases and monetisation proposals in Mumbai. They are demanding that the government formulate a unified public land policy covering all state and central agencies operating in Mumbai, with clear disclosure norms and public consultation procedures.
In the letter, they have also demanded that the state suspend all ongoing or proposed monetisation initiatives and legislate protection, ensuring that all public land remains reserved for genuine public purposes, based on measurable per-capita requirements for housing, open spaces and amenities.