India, Aug. 14 -- After the mill land debacle, Mumbai is on the threshold of losing yet another precious public land to commercialisation and possibly, privatisation - its port land along the Eastern Waterfront Front (EWF). This contiguous land parcel which stretches from Wadala in the north to Colaba in the south, falling under the jurisdiction of the densest wards of the city, namely A, B, C, E, F-North, and F-South is set to be leased out for 30 years, in parts, as ad hoc individual plots, hence, implying that any master planning for this area is redundant.

What makes this public land holding extremely significant is that other than the A ward it lies adjacent to the most impoverished wards of the city which have minimal public amenit...