The Times of India               22.01.2014

Projects worth Rs 110cr to be tabled at civic meeting

NAVI MUMBAI: Several projects have been listed for today's Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) general body (GB) meeting. Sources said the works are worth Rs 110 crore, but opposition leader Dilip Ghodekar from Shiv Sena described them as 'politically motivated'. "The work should have been taken up earlier. The civic chief had asked for 78 proposals, but the mayor approved 57," said Ghodekar.

The mayor said, "I inspected before taking a call. The works include footpaths, gutters and roads. Approval for more works would be sought at the next GB meeting on February 7."

Opposition corporators believe the impending announcement of Lok Sabha elections and the model code of conduct would prevent decision making for many projects. "Why were the works ignored for so long and decisions being taken on the eve of poll?" asked an opposition corporator.

A civic official said, "The approval is part of the current fiscal budget and the works could be taken up later after the due process of tendering. The budget for 2014-2015 would be tabled before February 28."

The Times of India               22.01.2014

Civic body plans change in Development Control rules for metro project

PUNE: The civic administration has proposed a modification in the Development Control (DC) rules to restrict developments within 10 metres of the proposed metro route.

The state government has already issued directives to regulate development works along the proposed Vanaz-Ramwadi metro corridor. The five-metre stretch will hence be frozen for development works with immediate effect. A no-objection certificate will be compulsory for any construction within 50 metres of the proposed alignment.

The civic administration has sought the general body's permission to invite suggestions and objections from citizens to the proposed modification in the DC rules of old and merged city areas.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had proposed 4 FSI on either side of the metro corridors to achieve greater population densification through vertical development of residential and commercial properties. The mass transport project will be economically viable by generating the all-important funds, the report suggested.

The DMRC has said that the project has to be implemented through densely populated areas along highly congested routes. The report says that despite all efforts taken to mitigate inconveniences to the public, certain sensitive land acquisitions and disruptions are unavoidable. "If the project has to go through fast, a visible support to the project from the government and the city corporation should be available. If the project implementation is delayed, the city will become more crowded and it will be practically impossible to carry out construction activities later on. Therefore, a carefully drawn strategy is necessary to implement this project," the DPR states.

Box 1: METRO ALIGNMENT ISSUES

BOX 2: Do we really need 4 FSI?

Experts and environmentalists have objected to the four FSI proposal. A Janwani study says that metro influence zone, according to the draft Development Plan (DP) report is 32.95 sq km. This if we consider 500m on both sides of metro corridors.

Residential use as per Proposed Land Use (PLU) has been pegged at 30%, which means 10 sq km land is available for housing. An FSI of 4 will result in built up area of 40 sq km, or 400 lakh sq m. This would generate eight lakh houses accommodating a population of 40 lakh, considering average size of tenement as 50 sq m.

The housing requirement, according to a study carried out for the draft DP, is 6.5 lakh houses which can house a population of 32.50 lakh for the entire city. This proves that tenements generated from the sale of FSI would be much higher than the required built up area to finance the metro, the Janwani report states.