Hindustan Times 24.02.2010
BMC bonanza for new hotels on city seafront?
New luxury hotels coming up on the city’s seafront may soon get a bonanza from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
The civic body plans to exclude a few floors of the structure — parking floors, podium space, service floors and the lobby — when calculating the FSI (Floor Space Index) given to luxury hotels coming up in parts of Mumbai that fall under the coastal regulation zone (CRZ).
If the plan goes through, the hotels will be able to build a few floors more without paying a premium to the BMC. It’s also one way of getting around restrictions on FSI in the ecologically fragile CRZ — which includes all areas up to 500 metres from the high tide line.
One of the immediate beneficiaries would be a hotel project coming up on the seafront in a tony western suburb.
The proposal is on the agenda of the Civic Improvement Committee meeting on Thursday. The committee is supposed to make amendments to the development control rules for the purpose. Once the civic body clears the proposal, state government has to approve it.
“This would be hazardous for the environment and will benefit the hoteliers. If the civic body is allowing this facility for luxury hotels then they should have done it for residential purpose too,” said Ajay Chaturvedi, a realty expert.
