For more than a century, the Mahalaxmi Racecourse has occupied a unique place in Mumbai’s geography and imagination.
An expansive open tract in the heart of South Mumbai, it has been at once a sporting landmark, a colonial relic, and a rare visual relief in a city choking for space. Now, with the Mumbai Central Park project, the racecourse is at the centre of one of independent India’s most ambitious urban transformations a plan that seeks to convert privilege into public good without erasing heritage.
Read Articles Without Ads On Your IndiaSportsHub App. Download Now And Stay Updated
Mumbai is among the world’s most densely populated cities, with per capita open space far below global norms. Against this backdrop, the proposal to create a nearly 300-acre contiguous green zone by integrating the historic Mahalaxmi Racecourse with land reclaimed from the Mumbai Coastal Road is unprecedented. If realised as envisioned, Mumbai Central Park would become the city’s largest public open space, comparable in scale to Hyde Park in London and functionally positioned as India’s closest equivalent to New York’s Central Park.
At its core, the project is a response to three chronic urban failures: lack of public open space, vulnerability to flooding during monsoons, and the historical concentration of prime land in elite, exclusionary institutions.
Established in 1883 on reclaimed marshland known as the Mahalakshmi Flats, the racecourse was designed along British colonial lines, inspired by racetracks in Melbourne and Sydney. Operated by the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) under a 99-year lease that expired in 2013, the 211-acre property became synonymous with elite leisure. While parts of the track were accessible to walkers for limited hours, the vast central lawns and facilities remained largely off-limits to the public.
Once the lease expired, the racecourse entered a decade-long limbo. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra government debated whether the land should remain a racing venue, be converted into a memorial, or opened fully as public space. The absence of rent payments during this period only sharpened public scrutiny.
The 2024 Compromise
The breakthrough came in July 2024 with a negotiated agreement between the state, the BMC, and the RWITC. Under this deal, the RWITC received a 30-year lease extension until 2053 for 91 acres, preserving the racing track, stables, grandstand, and helipad. In return, 120–125 acres were handed over to the BMC for the creation of Mumbai Central Park.
This compromise avoided the political and economic fallout of abruptly shutting down horse racing an industry supporting thousands of jobs while reclaiming a majority of the land for public use. It also ensured that the racecourse’s Grade II-B heritage status would not be compromised by indiscriminate redevelopment.
What distinguishes Mumbai Central Park from earlier park projects is its architectural philosophy. Designed by architect Hafeez Contractor, the master plan adopts a “vertical layering” approach. The surface is intended to remain largely free of concrete, devoted to greenery, walking trails, gardens, and open lawns. All heavy infrastructure sports facilities, parking, and utilities will be built underground.
At the heart of this plan is a 10 lakh square foot subterranean sports complex. It is designed to house Olympic-standard facilities alongside indigenous sports like kabaddi and kho-kho, addressing Mumbai’s acute shortage of large training spaces within city limits. Parking for thousands of vehicles and buses is also planned below ground, an attempt to prevent the park from becoming a traffic choke point.
Read Articles Without Ads On Your IndiaSportsHub App. Download Now And Stay Updated
Beyond recreation, the park is being positioned as critical climate infrastructure. Mumbai’s monsoon flooding is exacerbated by concrete surfaces that prevent water absorption. The Central Park is planned as a “sponge city” zone a permeable landscape designed to absorb, store, and slowly release rainwater.
Urban forests, rain gardens, bioswales, and water bodies will help reduce runoff into overstressed drains. Officials project that this could significantly lower flooding risks in surrounding areas such as Worli, Mahalaxmi, and Lower Parel. Dense tree cover is also expected to mitigate the urban heat island effect, potentially lowering local temperatures by up to 2–3 degrees Celsius.
A defining feature of the project is its integration with the Mumbai Coastal Road. Roughly 170 acres of reclaimed land along the shoreline will be connected to the racecourse park via a 1.2-kilometre underground tunnel. This tunnel will also link directly to the Metro 3 (Aqua Line), allowing visitors from across the city to access the park without relying on private vehicles.
This emphasis on underground connectivity reflects an important shift in Mumbai’s planning prioritising pedestrian movement and public transport in an area long dominated by road traffic. Unsurprisingly, the project has generated political and legal controversy. Opposition leaders and environmental groups have questioned whether the park could eventually be commercialised under the guise of “development.” Early references to a “theme park” triggered fears of concretisation, amusement rides, and ticketed access.
In response, the government rebranded the project as Mumbai Central Park and committed publicly to a no-concrete surface policy. Still, public interest litigations are pending in the Bombay High Court, challenging the land transfer and warning against dilution of recreational zoning. The court has allowed planning to continue but restrained irreversible action.
A Defining Urban Experiment
If executed faithfully, Mumbai Central Park could redefine how Indian cities treat heritage land. Instead of freezing it in time or monetising it aggressively, the project attempts adaptive reuse preserving history while radically expanding public access. The transformation of Mahalaxmi Racecourse is not just about greenery. It is about reclaiming space, redistributing privilege, and rethinking how land in India’s most expensive city should serve its people.
Whether Mumbai gets a true “green lung” or another compromised public project will depend less on vision and more on vigilance.
