Hindustan Times 24.12.2009
BMC cracks down on 14 more buildings for illegal floorsAt least 14 buildings between Kandivli and Dahisar will have to pay more than Rs 10 crore as penalty to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for flouting building sanctions.
Eight of these 14 buildings are in the Gaurav Garden layout in Kandivli.
Residents of floors 8 to 24 of Gaurav Gagan building, which is in the same vicinity, are already fighting to save their homes as the Bombay High Court recently upheld the BMC’s order to demolish these floors as they were built without sanctions.
Gaurav Gagan is one of the 154 buildings in the city, which flouted development control (DC) regulations by adding extra floors without the civic body’s permission. The HC last week upheld a May 14, 2007, order of the BMC asking Ravi Real Estate Developers — the builders of the 24-storey structure — to demolish the top 17 floors.
Ashok Shintre, chief engineer, building proposal department said, “We will take action on the developer according to the court order. There are few other buildings also in the city, which did not paid penalty yet. They can be regularised only after they pay the penalty.”
Sources from the building proposal department said the BMC has calculated the penalty to be about Rs 10 crore, which the other buildings located in the Gaurav Garden layout failed to pay as residents were finding it difficult to arrange for the sum.
The BMC had sanctioned the construction of Gaurav Gagan as a stilt-plus-seven-storey building in 1992. An inspection in 1997 revealed that the developer added 17 extra floors. The BMC had ordered that these floors be demolished.
Sudhir Khandwala, who owns two flats on the 10th floor of the building, challenged the BMC’s order in the HC. It ruled that residents of such illegal structures should take the developer to court.
