Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Civic body demolishes four-storey building in Belapur, buyers upset
Owner had sold 15 flats and around seven shops on the ground floor
The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has started going after illegal buildings in the city.
Within two weeks of demolishing a five-storey building in Nerul, it has pulled down a fourstorey building in Belapur.
Following municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe’s stern warning to his ward officers that not one illegal construction in the city should be allowed, a survey is being conducted by them in villages, gaothans, nodal areas and public utility plots to check for encroachments and illegal constructions.
The anti-encroachment department of the NMMC struck at an under construction G+four storey building in Shahbaaz village of Belapur on Wednesday with police bandobast.
The building owned by Rafiq Workers raze a four-storey building at CBD Belapur on Wednesday.
Kazi had been issued a 24-hour ultimatum.
Though the building was unoccupied, the owner who planned to live in one section of the building had sold around seven shops on the ground floor and around 15
flats to buyers.
Belapur ward officer Dattatrey Kale said, “The owner had a chawl here which he had demolished and started construction of the building in 2013. A notice had then been issued to him by NMMC under the MRTP Act to stop the work. But, he continued with it.”
Kale said, “We issued him a 24-hour notice and since he did not respond, we have demolished the building as it did not have the requisite building permission.”
According to sources, the shops in the building have been sold for Rs40 lakh each, while the flats have been sold for around Rs18 lakh.
A number of buyers are relatives of local residents. A buyer said, “We have been cheated both by the builder and the civic body. When it knew that this is an illegal building, why was a board not put up here to warn us?”
He said, “We accept that it is our mistake too, but we are not very educated and do not have much knowledge of the legalities.”
Another man who had bought a house there said, “I had checked on the NMMC website which mentioned that the building is illegal. However, the developer said that this is project-affected land and that Cidco has cleared it. He showed us the Cidco website which did not list the building as illegal.”