Mahalaxmi racecourse land to be handed over to BMC to set up theme park
Members of Royal Western India Turf Club vote in favour of proposal.

Mumbai’s largest green spot is soon to be transformed into a theme park as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s proposal for transforming the existing Mahalaxmi Racecourse received a nod from the members of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) on Tuesday, following a two-day voting session of the RWITC club members. Of the 708 members who cast their votes, 540 voted in support of BMC’s proposal while 168 members voted against it.

The RWITC is the parent body of the racecourse, which is spread across 211 acres in Mahalaxmi, making it one of the largest green open spaces in the space-starved financial capital of the country. The land is jointly owned by the BMC and state government and has been leased out to the RWITC since 1914. The last lease agreement had expired in 2013, and for more than a decade now, the lease was not renewed by the authorities, even though the racecourse continued to exist. However, in January this year, the civic authorities had proposed that the lease of this land would be renewed only after the major portion of this land parcel is acquired solely by the authorities.
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The BMC had proposed that out of the 211 acres, nearly 120 acres shall be acquired by the authorities while the remaining 91 acres will stay with the RWITC. Suresh Sanas, who is the current chairman of RWITC, told Express that race tracks, helipad, grandstand, which is a Grade II – B heritage structure and some of the horse stables will stay under the 91-acre portion which will stay with the racecourse.

While the remaining 120-acre plot will house the jogging tracks, some of the stables, the parking area and portion of the lawn.

Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on January 18 gave a presentation to the members tabling his proposal of creating the theme park, when he had also said that no civil construction would be taken up in the plot which the BMC is set to take back from the authorities. He also maintained that the primary objective of setting up a park is to ensure that the land parcel becomes universally accessible.

Taken & forwarded from Indian Express.