India, Aug. 15 -- In 1947, as India stepped into freedom, Mumbai's urban landscape reflected decades of meticulous planning, from worker chawls built by the Bombay Development Department to thoughtfully laid-out suburbs like Dadar and Matunga. Today, that vision has evolved dramatically, with prime sea-facing homes selling for record-breaking prices and redevelopment projects such as Dharavi taking centre stage.

In the years leading up to independence, then-Bombay was shaped by decades of colonial-era planning and infrastructure development. Much of the city's built environment reflected early 20th-century initiatives such as the Bombay Development Department (BDD), which, from the 1920s, reclaimed land along Marine Drive and built affor...