Part of the series: Mumbai’s Lost Workers
By Pius Varghese Pullikottil
The Silence After the Sirens
There was a time when Mumbai woke up to the sound of sirens — from mills in Parel and factories in Bhandup, Mulund, and Thane.
Those whistles meant work, wages, and dignity. They defined the rhythm of a city built by its workers.
Today, the chimneys are silent, the gates rusted, and the land once meant for them has turned into playgrounds for the powerful.
The question every Mumbaikar must ask is simple:
Who really owns this land — the people, or the privileged few?
The Law and the Promise That Was Broken
The Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, 1976 was among India’s most humane urban laws.
It was created to prevent hoarding of land and to ensure that surplus land serves the public good — especially housing.
Under Section 20, mills and factories were allowed to keep excess land only if it was used for genuine industrial purposes.
Once the factory closed or changed its use, the law required the land to return to the government — and therefore, to the people.
But somewhere between legislation and lobbying, that promise was broken.
In 2014, a Full Bench of the Bombay High Court reaffirmed that the government still has the power and duty to reclaim such lands even after repeal of the Act.
Yet, the verdict was buried under political silence.
From Justice to Injustice
In 2019, the State government issued a Resolution allowing landholders to pay just 10% of land value and retain property that should have reverted to the State.
A 90% discount — not on private property, but on public trust.
Crores were collected, but how many homes were built for the workers who lost their livelihoods?
How many middle-class families got relief in this housing crisis?
None of us have seen the answers.
The Invisible Workers and the Silent Factories
Over 1.1 lakh mill workers were declared eligible for housing after decades of struggle.
Barely 15,000 have received homes. The rest still wait — growing old in rented rooms, watching towers rise where their homes were promised.
And it’s not just the mills.
Across Mumbai and its suburbs, factories such as GKW Ltd. (Bhandup West), Richardson & Cruddas (Byculla and Mulund), Mukand, Voltas, Ceat, Nerolac, Godrej, Crompton, NRC, Pfizer, Merind, Burroughs Wellcome, Hoechst, API, Wyeth Laboratories, Bombay Oxygen, Ralliwolf, Chicago Pneumatics, and many, many more stand as reminders of an industrial legacy that has either closed down, fallen idle, or been redeveloped into towers, malls, or commercial estates.
Each of these factories was once built on publicly owned or government-leased land, granted under the promise of generating employment and contributing to the city’s growth.
When production stopped and the gates shut, that promise — and the legal condition behind it — should have led to the land returning to the public domain.
Instead, most of it has quietly shifted into private or commercial use, far removed from the workers and citizens it was meant to serve.
I still remember walking past the old Richardson & Cruddas gate — the machines silent, the compound locked, the workers outside with papers in hand.
They had built the factory. But the factory had erased them.
From Idle Lands to Glittering Towers
Many of Mumbai’s once-vibrant industrial plots no longer stand silent — they now shine as commercial towers, malls, and luxury residences.
Where factory sirens once blew, valet parking signs now glimmer.
Where workers once queued for wages, there are cafés and showrooms for the elite.
Projects have risen on the lands of Mukand, Ceat, Voltas, Godrej, Nerolac, Crompton, GKW, etc. — sometimes under the name of “redevelopment,” sometimes through “joint ventures,” and often by exploiting government resolutions.
What unites them all is this:
Land that was meant for industry and public welfare has been converted into private capital — without the people ever being compensated or consulted.
The few plots that still lie idle tell one story;
the glittering malls and towers tell another — that public land can be turned into profit if you have proximity to power.
Contract Labour: The New Face of Insecurity
Even as factories disappeared, secure work disappeared too.
Across both government and private sectors, the contract labour system has replaced permanent jobs.
Salaries come without benefits, service without security, and work without hope.
From industrial units to hospitals and even government offices, workers who once expected stability now live month-to-month, disposable at will.
A family without job security cannot dream of owning a home.
A worker unsure of next month’s employment cannot plan a future.
The same policies that allow public land to be gifted to private developers also allow public institutions to depend on private contractors for labour.
Both are symptoms of the same disease — a system that values profit over people.
When permanent workers are replaced with contract labourers, and when public land is transferred to private hands, we dismantle not only industries but also stability, dignity, and citizenship itself.
A Moral and Constitutional Duty
Our Constitution demands that material resources serve the common good (Article 39(b)).
The right to shelter forms part of the right to life (Article 21).
When public land is handed to private interests while citizens struggle for housing, it’s not just bad policy — it’s a betrayal of the Constitution itself.
A City Divided by Walls
In one corner of Mumbai, glass towers rise on former mill and factory plots.
In another, the very workers who built those industries travel hours every day just to survive.
The same soil that once sustained them now excludes them.
That is not progress.
That is displacement wrapped in development slogans.
The Path Forward
Reclaiming these lands for housing is not about nostalgia — it’s about fairness.
It’s about giving meaning to the word public again.
The State must:
- Publish a white paper on all closed mills and factories that received government exemptions or leases.
- Reclaim lands that breached their industrial-use conditions.
- Reserve those lands exclusively for affordable housing for workers, lower-middle-class families, and the urban poor.
- Audit and disclose all funds collected under the 2019 GR.
Mumbai was built by its people — and the people deserve to live in it.
In Conclusion
Cities are not built by corporations.
They are built by workers, by citizens, by families who believed that hard work could buy a home and dignity.
Land under closed mills and factories was never meant for speculation.
It was meant for those who made Mumbai move.
The fight for housing cannot be separated from the fight for secure employment.
Without fair work and stable income, even the right to a home becomes a distant dream.
The right to housing is not a favour.
It is a constitutional promise — and it’s time we claim it back.
About the Author
Pius Varghese Pullikottil is the Co-Founder and National General Secretary of Sanay Chatrapati Shasan, which he co-founded along with Professor Namdevrao Jadhav. He is a socio-political activist and commentator on labour, civic, and housing rights, writing on law, governance, and issues affecting the common citizen.
Continue Reading: From Mills to Malls: The Great Mumbai Land Betrayal : https://sanaychatrapatishasan.com/from-mills-to-malls-the-great-mumbai-land-betrayal/