The Asian Age: Mumbai: Monday,
October 24, 2016.
Information
received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the Mumbai Metropolitan
Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has revealed that the Urban Development
Department in 2014-15 had decided to grant 3.0 FSI to the Maharashtra Housing
and Area Development Authority (Mhada) for development in Block A located in
Bandra (west) from the BKC notified area.
The urban
development department had toyed with three options before opting for the one
that permitted Mhada to utilise the full potential of FSI as per the revisions
of the Development Control Regulations (DCR) 33 (5).
However, now
the same land is with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for
inclusion in the Development Plan 2034.
This was
revealed by Mohammad Furqan Qureshi, who got the information under the RTI Act.
“I had sought
information from MMRDA regarding the Block ‘A’ as it was the special planning
authority (SPA) before it was transferred to the MCGM for inclusion in the
Development Plan 2034,” said Mr Qureshi.
“That is when
I came across the documents that showed that Mhada had already planned for the
same plot and had also been granted permission to develop it and would get FSI
of up to 3.00,” said Mr Qureshi.
He said that
he had filed a petition in the Bombay high court demanding a graveyard in
Bandra (west) or Khar (west) for the increasing population that had to go to
already overfilled graveyards at Bandra (east) or Santacruz (west).
As per the
communication between MMRDA and the UDD, copies of which are available with The
Asian Age, the UDD had received an application from Mhada in the form of three
options for developing Block ‘A’ and it had approved the option that allowed
development of the plot under DCR 33 (5) with a 3.00 FSI.
“In the
current scenario, there is utter confusion among the people as to why a new
plan is being made by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) while there
is an existing plan by Mhada. The BMC should adopt the plan and ensure that
there is no further delay in the declaration of the DP plan,” said Mr Qureshi.
When asked
about the same, Vivek More, deputy chief engineer, DP said, “The state
government has issued a notification stating that the planning proposals and
regulations of MMRDA will be continued till such time the revised DP is
sanctioned and the development plan remarks may be issued by MMRDA till
publication of draft DP by MCGM.”
Officials
from the UDD were unavailable for comment despite The Asian Age’s repeated
attempts to contact them.