State plans to regularise illegal houses

MUMBAI: More than two lakh illegal residential structures across Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune and other big cities in the state could be a regularised with the government imposing hefty fines on the owners. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who made the announcement in the Assembly on Wednesday, said a plan is being formulated to regularise illegal constructions after levying a compounding fee and getting an undertaking from own- ers, restricting further alterations.

The move is in line with the recommendations made by the Kunte committee, which was formed to give suggestions on regularising illegal constructions in the state’s urban areas and ways to curb them.

According to sources in the Mantralaya, although illegal constructions in Mumbai are relatively low, they are rampant in the metropolitan region extending beyond Thane. There are close to 40,000 illegal residential buildings i n areas such as Dombivli, Kalyan and Ulhasnagar, among others.

Fadnavis informed the lower house that Kunte committee’s report has been accepted in principle, and once it is vetted by the revenue and law and judicial department, the regularisation process will begin.

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