Mumbai as a city needs no introduction to most Indians. Populous, cosmopolitan, fast-moving and diverse are some of the common adjectives used to describe this city. The sheer population of the city – well over 14 million people – often maims the local transportation facilities, and renders it insufficient. This increases the use of personal vehicles, hence adding to problems of parking, pollution and traffic jams.

In the light of these well-known problems of the city that is Mumbai, Tata Motors – owned by arguably the most respected business house in the country – has introduced the Nano EV, an electric vehicle, as a plausible solution.

There’s more. The Tata Corporation have planned to build a new building – Tata Towers in the city, with a unique vertical car parking facility. These residential towers, designed by Seth Ellsworth & Jayoung Kim are to have 930 residences for Tata employees and a parking space for 4,050 cars. The towers will also boast of several energy-efficient features.

The vertical parking system exploits the height of each building, and will permit cars to move up and down in vertical cores on small platforms. Residents can park their cars in their own gardens. Vertical parking enables maximum use of available space and also frees up space for a more pedestrian-oriented ground plane, allowing for parks and recreation areas.

The towers could eventually become a parking resource for other buildings as well, linked horizontally through skybridges.

The towers will have alternate energy sources such as solar power-collecting louvers, building-integrated wind turbines, tri-generation, and an algae farm which produces biodiesel. These energy sources will provide enough power to fuel the residences and also recharge the electric vehicles.

A truly outstanding initiative for the benefit of the common man and his environment, yet again from the Tatas.