Make cities taller

Govt's move on higher FSI makes ample sense

Hardeep Puri, minister of state for housing and urban affairs, has taken a wise decision to set up a committee to look at a higher floor space index (FSI), to make our cities taller. Currently, Indian cities are stuck with an FSI not exceeding 1.5, but most big cities of the world allow much higher FSI. For example, in 1984, Shanghai had only 3.65 sq m of space per person. Through liberal use of FSI, despite increase in population since 1984, the city increased the available space to 34 sq m per person. In contrast, in 2009, Mumbai on average