Central Mumbai: From textile hub to infra nightmare

Office space on mill land expected to reach 16 mn sq ft by 2021, from 3 mn sq ft in 2005

The December 29 fire at Kamala Mills in Lower Parel area of central Mumbai has made Vinayak Sawant, a 42-year-old executive in a private firm operating out of this complex, a worried man. 

“I wonder how would fire engines enter the complex if anything happens during peak hours, as roads have bumper to bumper traffic,” said Sawant. 

For about a century, central Mumbai’s Parel and Elphinston area was best known for textile mills. They started the transformation into a commercial and F&B hub in the past one-and-half decade. While the major chunk of the 900-acre mill land in this area