Time and again, rapidly expanding cities put vertical growth in the spotlight. Vertical growth keeps cities smaller, lowering commute times for city dwellers and improving quality of life.
“Vertical growth is necessitated by limited land availability, rapidly growing population and increasing land prices,” says Rahul Maroo, CEO, Omkar Realtors & Developers. “While there is a fear that higher FAR [floor-area ratio] would destroy the urban fabric, lower FAR implies higher horizontal growth, which is conducive to environmental sustainability but eats into the limited supply; especially in the context of the Mumbai metropolis.”
For the record, Mumbai is India’s tallest city by far, with 79 of India’s 97 completed buildings standing over 150 m tall, and 36 of the 50 such buildings under construction, according to the Skyscraper Center (see box). In the past two decades, Mumbai has seen the average number of floors of building projects increase by more than 10.
