(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Mumbai has a history of shady developers who bribe officials and build more than what they are authorised to as per the floor space index norms.
in a city where every sq ft of built-up space costs a fortune (ranging from rs25000 in the suburbs to more than rs100000 in posh localities of south mumbai) it is not surprising that unscrupulous builders are tempted to break the rules and construct more flats than they are authorised to.
mumbai has a history of shady developers who bribe civic officials when they come for inspection and build much more than what they are authorised to as per the floor space index (fsi) norms. shockingly the violations relate to not just a hundred or even a thousand sq ft.
hundreds of residents of campa cola compound in worli in central mumbai are currently battling the civic authorities who have been ordered to demolish more than a hundred flats in the complex as the floors where they are located are all illegal. but campa cola is just the tip of the iceberg as there are thousands of other illegal buildings located across the metropolis.
fifty-six thousand to be precise. that was the figure the bombay municipal corporation (bmc) mentioned in its affidavit to the supreme court last year when asked about the number of illegal buildings in the city. according to the civic body more than 16000 of these were detected as recently as 2012 and 2013.
of the 56000 illegal buildings a significant number — more than 12000 — is in the western suburb of andheri. but other parts of mumbai including tony localities in south mumbai also have had their fair share of illegal buildings.
consider two notorious examples of the recent past. pratibha a 36-storeyed high-rise near peddar road in south mumbai which came up in the mid-1980s included eight illegal floors adding up to 24000 sq ft of unauthorised built-up space. the supreme court ordered the demolition of all eight floors.
less than a kilometre from pratibha another illegal building had also come up in the 1980s. arihant located opposite the cadbury house was completely unauthorised. the courts ordered the demolition of the entire structure.
another notorious example in the suburbs was of gaurav gagan in kandivali where 17 floors (of the total 24) were illegal. eight other buildings in the complex were also found to have illegal floors. the most recent instance is of adarsh society in cuffe parade which was also found to have come up with illegal fsi that the developers managed to get by bribing officials.
while the bmc admits to more than 56000 illegal buildings within its jurisdiction there are tens of thousands of other illegal buildings in the extended suburbs and within the mumbai metropolitan region (mmr). distant suburbs including ulhasnagar badlapur virar vasai and even in navi mumbai that are home to several illegal structures many that have come up even without the local authorities approving them. if one were to take into account slum colonies in the mmr they number in the hundreds of thousands. the housing racket in mumbai is mind-boggling involving billions of rupees of illegal funds and hundreds of government and civic officials contractors and builders.
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