Bimbisar Nagar,
Mumbai, Maharashtra

To understand the idea of public infrastructures within the city, this studio looks closely at the transit accommodation site of Bimbisar Nagar in the Mumbai suburb of Goregaon East. Bimbisar Nagar was set up around the late 1970s as a transit camp. The area formerly consisted of one storey houses called baithi chawls. Later, when the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Board (MHADA) took over, the land was reallocated for low, middle, and high-income groups. People in transit housing projects often waited long years to be allocated permanent housing. This was the case in Bimbisar Nagar as well. The residents remedied the situation by creating their own infrastructure to fulfill the need for space for everyday interactions, recreation, and community life. They mobilized available resources and materials to build these resources incrementally. The studio asked how one could deal with providing community infrastructure to a site like Bimbisar Nagar whose insecurity emerged from impending relocation bids which were delayed for more than twenty years.