Mantralaya’s 7th floor is illegal, has no BMC nod

MUMBAI: Flouting all norms, the state government has constructed a seventh floor at the state secretariat building without the requisite permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). This makes the top floor of the Mantralaya illegal.

In the aftermath of the fire that gutted the top three floors of Mantralaya last June, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had admitted that the seventh floor of the building was illegal and that it would not be built again.

The first plan of the renovated building was prepared without the seventh floor and had envisioned chilling plants for air conditioners above the sixth floor. The plan was later altered, but not forwarded to the BMC.

The government has now hastened the procedure to regularise the floor, which has six conference rooms and a cabinet hall. The file for regularisation was sent to the civic body in October, after the state received queries about the construction work.

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