Shirish Patel
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A brief biography
Dec 21, 2024: The Times of India
Mumbai : In a city where private greed tends to overtake public good, Shirish Patel was a tireless advocate for equitable urban development. He was a distinguished civil engineer and urban planner.
Patel was designer of the first flyover in India, Kemps Corner Flyover, built in 1965. But like many of his generation, he strayed far beyond his profession to engage with urban and social challenges facing a young nation. He played a role in the early development of Mumbai, helping conceive and plan Navi Mumbai, and remained actively engaged with urban issues until the end of his life.
Born in 1932, Patel spent his early school years in Karachi before moving to Bombay, where his father Bhailal Patel became the first Indian municipal commissioner. After studying engineering at Cambridge University, he worked on large dams, including Karina Dam in Zambia and Koyna Dam in Maharashtra, before starting his own engineering firm. In 1965, he along with Charles Correa and Pravina Mehta proposed a new city across the harbour to take the load off Mumbai. Five years later, he was made chief planner with Cidco, the agency created to build Navi Mumbai.
He was critical of the city’s proliferation in the recent years, which he described as a “madness” that was destroying the urban fabric. TNN
