State rule change hurdle in Lalbaug chawl revamp
MUMBAI: A total of 187 tenants from an old chawl in Lalbaug that stands on a municipal corporation-owned plot, will now not be able to go through with the redevelopment of their building as planned by them a year ago.
Reason: The state government in the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034 deleted provisions that allowed tenants of municipal plots to appoint developers and redevelop their building on the same plot, after handing over a portion to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to construct a public amenity. These public amenities have been planned by BMC as reservations on the plot in the DCPR, and include schools, hospitals, parking lots, affordable housing markets, among others.
According to new provisions, plots with reservations will have to be exclusively developed by BMC entirely for the intended purpose of the reservation (public amenity).
This makes it BMC’S onus to rehabilitate residents, and it cannot be done in-situ. The provision does not apply to only reservation for recreational ground.
This Lalbaug chawl — with a reservation for parking and affordable housing — is one among nine properties set to face the same issue, as they have already hired developers and approached BMC for redevelopment, but have not received the final nod to start construction, according to data from BMC.
There are 94 other properties on municipal plots with reservations, that will now fall under the new rule, and hence their tenants will have to be rehabilitated by BMC elsewhere, and the plots developed for a public amenity.
A senior civic official from the estates department said, “We received a total of 128 proposals for redevelopment of tenanted properties, and approved 34 of them earlier. These will in no way be affected by the new rules. However, the remaining 94 will have to be redeveloped for public amenities, and their tenants moved elsewhere.”
A senior civic official from the Development Plan (DP) department said, “The nine properties, which had the Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) pending, the final document needed for construction, had began all process, but are now stuck in limbo. In some of these cases, the developer has paid BMC a capital amount to be able to redevelop a building standing on the municipal plot. We are figuring out what to do.”
The official said, “It will not be feasible for BMC to rehabilitate so many tenants elsewhere, negotiate with them, then construct the amenity.”
Milind Chagani, senior architect who is associated with Practicing Engineers, Architects, and Town Planners Association (PEATA), said, “90% of municipal-tenanted plots in the city have reservation. Many developers have paid over crores to BMC as capital amount.”