A Second Aquarium, & A Familiar Question

Mumbai is on the cusp of building what may become the world’s most expensive aquarium per square foot. The proposed ₹64 crore facility at Byculla Zoo spans just 5,000 square feet and sits barely five kilometres from the century-old Taraporevala Aquarium, which itself is undergoing a ₹100 crore renovation.

At first glance, it might seem like an innocuous addition to the city’s public amenities. But the decision points to something deeper and more troubling: a city increasingly built for the gaze of others. We are witnessing a pattern where public investment leans heavily toward optics, designed to impress rather than to serve.

This trend is not new, but it is becoming harder to ignore. Urban space is being seen less as a shared civic resource and more as a canvas for temporary fascination. From the glitzy Bollywood installations planned under Metro Line 2B to the 50-foot LED sphere at Bandra Reclamation. At the Bandra Fort, residents have protested changes to its structure and character, arguing that its recent makeover has erased more than it has enhanced. These projects may catch the eye, but do they ease the lived realities of the people who call this city home?

Cities around the world have long debated how to balance economic ambition with cultural preservation. The most successful ones choose clarity over confusion. Japan, for instance, has preserved its cultural heritage in cities like Kyoto and Nara, while Tokyo remains the business nerve centre. France celebrates Paris as its cultural capital while encouraging financial expansion elsewhere, in districts like La Défense. There’s vision, and there’s discipline.

In Mumbai, the approach often feels different: an attempt to be everything to everyone, all at once. We build business districts without walkability. Art districts which are unaffordable and inaccessible. And now, two aquariums within five kilometres of each other.

Mumbai’s residents pay some of the highest property taxes, registration fees, and stamp duties in the country. Yet rarely are they the protagonists of the planning process. It is tourism, and tourist-facing development that gets priority. We’ve seen this pattern before: with the proposed Mumbai Eye.

What Mumbai truly needs is investment in civic basics; clean and safe streets, inclusive public parks, accessible transit, working footpaths, and green spaces that foster a sense of belonging. Planning should not be an exercise in visual distraction; it must be a process rooted in function, fairness, and lived experience.

If we are serious about building a world-class city, then our planning must begin with its residents. Tourists may pass through, but it is the people of Mumbai who stay, pay, vote, and raise generations here. They deserve more than spectacle. They deserve a city built for them.

Ankieta Kothari is a promoter at Pantheion Real Estate, driving forward a vision of sophisticated, sustainable, and user-centric urban development

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