Civic body will not issue new construction permits from today

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday stopped issuing new construction permits after the six-month interim relief on construction granted by the Supreme Court (SC) expired. It will file its compliance report in the SC, hoping for an extension of the relief.

In March 2016, the Bombay high court (HC) had imposed a stay on new constructions in the city, expressing concern that city’s landfills were getting saturated. This moratorium was lifted by the SC on March 17, 2018, for six months, which ends on Tuesday. The SC order had mandated that builders will be permitted to start construction only after undertaking proper disposal of debris as part of the Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) and submitting a bank guarantee of an amount between ₹5 lakh and ₹50 lakh. The BMC had been asked to submit a fresh report to SC, detailing process to dump construction debris and other waste management systems in the city after six months.

The BMC will now file its compliance report in the SC on Tuesday, explaining the number of permissions it had granted in the past six months, the action taken against errant developers, the system created for issuing IOD and proper disposal of construction debris. The BMC has also sent notices to errant builders flouting norms related to dumping of construction debris.

“We are detailing the work done in the past six months for proper disposal of construction debris, which includes the creation of online system for permits. Until further instructions from SC, the BMC will not issue permissions for new construction,” said a senior civic official.

The civic body had put the onus of finding sites for dumping debris on the developers. In the past six months, builders identified 15 sites, of which, 11 have reached their limits. As of August, 1, 080 realty project proposals had received pre-clearance. “There is confusion and delay due to both the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) and the construction ban. We will decide the next course of action after the SC hearing,” said Vilas Nagalkar, city-based architect from Practising Engineers, Architects and Town Planners.

On an average, 15-20% construction projects received by the BMC are new ones. For example, in 2014-2015, of the 1,700 permissions for realty projects, 318 were for new projects.

THE BMC WILL FILE ITS COMPLIANCE REPORT IN THE SC ON TUESDAY AND HOPE THAT THE RELIEF IS EXTENDED BY THE APEX COURT