RE-MAKING BOMBAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15306, 6 August 1923, Page 8

RE-MAKING BOMBAY.

A CHALLENGE TO THE MONSOON. MODERN DREDGING -PLANT .The fundamental difficulty of Bombay is the difficulty of New York, but in a more acute form. Like Manhattan Island, Bombay Island is a narrow spit of land running down south into the sea. On the east side of this tongue is an expanse of water six miles broad, while to the west lies the Arabian Sea.

To-day, with a population-of • more than a million, the congestion of Bombay city has become acute, declares a correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. Within the narrow space of this tongue ofi land are the dockSj the railway termini, the Government offices, the mercantile and shipping centres, and a very large part of the residential area. Year by year the congestion has inceased until the inhabitants of Bombay find themselves literally between the devil and the deep sea.

Short of picking the city up and putting it down somewhere else, no single project can remedy all the defects, but the Government of Bombay, under the enthusiastic driving power of the Governor, Sir George Lloyd, has embarked upon wide schemes of development. Chief among these schemes is that for the reclamation of 1200 acres from the sea. East, south and west the sea laps at the very doorsteps of the inhabitants. To .the north there is surplus land, but remote, difficult to access, low lying, and objectionable in other ways. On the east side there is the harbour and the docks. On the south the peninsula ends in a line of rocks culminating in the Prongs Reef, which bears the full force of the south-west monsoon.

Accordingly the engineers turned to the west. On this side there is an extensive shallow bight known as Back Bay, formed by the projecting Malabar Point on the north and by the Prongs Reef on the south. Across the bay the south-west monsoon rollers break on the shallow bottom and it was-from the inner portion of this bay that the engineers decided to reclaim the land from the sea,

The area to be reclaimed amounts in all to about 1200 acres, which is to be enclosed with a wall four miles long. The whole of the bay being exposed to the monsoon winds and seas, a particularly strong wall is required. For a length of 8000 feet, starting from the south end of Colaba Point, the wall is founded on the reef of rocks and is built of Portland cement blocks weighing about 9 tons each. It is 16ft thick, and is surmounted by a masonry parapet 13ft. above high water. At the end of this block wall the rocky bottom dips and changes to sand and boulders, * necessitating a change in the form of construction. Front this point onwards the wall consists ;of a stone rubble mound protected on its outer face by 20-ton concrete blocks, and surmounted by a mass concrete superstructure. For this rubble mound one million tons of stone are being obtained from quarries opened up for the purpose at Kandivlee, 27 miles distant. The most modern plant has been inslalled, the actual breaking-out of the stone being done by pneumatic picks. Special waggons have been built for the carriage of the stone to the wall, where they are run along a temporary wooden staging and the stone is tipped direct on to the site. The work is carried on from both ends of the wall simultaneously, and is expected to be completed about 1927. The total amount of the material required for fllling-in the area thus enclosed is 27 million cubic yards, or the equivalent of a mass five miles long, 1000 vards broad; and -9ft. high. To attempt to bring this vast amount in by train or cart would involve immense expense and take a very long lime. A scheme has therefore been devised to dredge from the harbour on the east side, and pump the material thus obtained through pipe-lines across the peninsula into the reclaimed area. For this purpose three dredges are to be employed, one-of-which is the largest of its type in' thai.world. ■' It is capable of dredging afadepth Of 17ft 2000 cubic yards of solid material per hour. This will be pumped through a pipe-line 12,000 ft. long. There will be three of these pipes laid across the peninsula, each 3ft. ,6jnv in diameter, and they will be sunk beneath the surface of the ground. ■• ■-'•- The whole scheme is estimated to cost about four million pounds, and a total area of four million square yards will bo added to the present crowded, densely built area. Mills and factories, which deface the present city, would be conspicuous by their absence; an extensive mall, open spaces, boulevards, and handsome buildings are proje.icted, and altogether the designers of the scheme are to be congratulated on their efforts to render Bombay the first city of India.