The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor
Partnership between the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva &
School of Planning and Architecture, Indra Prastha Estate, New Delhi

The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project epitomizes the current trend in Indian development policies. Economic hubs revolving around cities combine both investments and employment, while obeying to a logic of reterritorialization and rescaling. However, decentralization, deregulation and privatization have brought their corollaries of fragmentations: political, territorial, social as well as ecological. In this particular fragile context, contemporary issues of ‘sustainable development’ are very much debated at different levels (international, national, and local) without leading to concrete political measures though. Actually, the emerging corporate power favoured by the politics is expected to contribute with a bigger share into the environmental management.
Figure 1
From this point, several questions are raised about the impact of the social movements on the decision making process. For years, they have counterbalanced the power of both the State and the corporations. Yet, in spite of some successful attempts, their role has not benefited from fair political recognition. Thereby, managing the environment has become a delicate governance issue, in which multilevel stakeholders got involved. The resulting triangulation: state – corporations – social movements, has evolved in a globalized economic and environmental challenges. In fact, the regulatory and structural framework of environmental management has been modified under several pressures.
Photos 2&3
The core of our research addresses the role of the different stakeholders in managing the environment in the context of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. More particularly, the stretch Mumbai-Surat will be investigated. This stretch combines various territorial, environmental and social tensions under different constituencies. Questions on policy implementation, institutional transparency, and corporate responsibility have aroused. What strategies have the social movements adopted in monitoring and enforcing the environmental regulations? Overall, what partnerships and alliances have they contracted with the other significant players? But negotiation and compromise might have led to integration into the main polity, softening thereby the very spirit of the traditional countervailing power.
Photos 4&5

Key words:
environmental groups--India
project management -- India
governance --India
Citizenship--India
Corporate social responsibility-- India

figure 1 « Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor » (Source: Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion; Ministry of Commerce & Industry; Government of India, 2007)

                                         
Photo 2+3 Ankhleshwar (©ToxicTrespass)

                              
Photo 4+5 Versova Save the Mangrove Movement (©Rajesh Vora)

 

Address Switzerland
David John Kong
IUHEID, Geneva
Email: kong4@etu.unige.ch

Address India
School of Planning and Architecture, Indra Prastha Estate, New Delhi – 110 002, INDIA.