Illegal construction: Residents of plush Khar building may lose almost 50% of flat area

In yet another case of illegal construction, Mumbai-based realtor K Mordani Realty has misused provisions under the Development Control regulation to construct eight additional floors in a plush building on Khar 16 Road, which may now result in the building’s residents losing a little less than 50 percent (40 percent) of their apartment areas, according to a Times of India report.

The DCR regulation allows developers to obtain a higher floor space index if they construct a free transit tenements for project-affected persons, on the same plot or elsewhere. This scheme is usually offered asan incentive for developers whose plots in prime areas may not be able to hold a single slum.

Earlier this week, a TOI investigation revealed that the developer bypassed the civic body and obtained higher Floor Space Index (FSI) by approaching the Slum Rehabilitation Authority . While the BMC had initially cleared 12 floors for the tower, the SRA allowed the builder to construct an additional 20 floors in this luxury buildings where each flat is quoted for not less than Rs 10 crore. ( Read more here)

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The apartment plot has a size of 6,000 sq-ft and a construction area of about 60,000 sq-ft, which is ten times the plot area. To top it all, the developer has showed the transit tenements as a part of this luxury tower. According to the report, “building violations also includemerging the lift lobby area into adjacent rooms, illegally covering elevation features, making toilets and prayer rooms out of ducts and amalgamating the fitness centre and the meter room.”

The construction of such unwarranted high-risesvialarge-scale FSI misappropriationon a narrow lane is anexample of how Mumbai developers misuse the laws of municipal corporation and the state government time and again. Till the government doesn’t stop treating realty developers with kid-gloves, there will be no end to such violations.

However, the unfortunate reality of Mumbai is the fact that slums occupy one-fourth of Mumbai’s land and this might be the reason why builders and politicians have joined hands to grab a piece of the pie.

In 1995, the Maharashtra government came up with an ambitious plan to redevelop these encroached plots and rehabilitate the slum dwellers on the same plots. Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), was widely appreciated as an innovative scheme to combat the menace of encroachment. But here lies the devil. The SRAscheme permits the builder to commercially exploit the plot as well since he gets a free-sale component too.

The higher the number of people getting rehabilitated, the larger the area to sell in the market. And this is where builders often flout selling norms by joining hands with civil officials and politicians.

More often than not, SRA flats are illegally occupied as the slum-dwellers who get flats, sell/rent them and create another illegal slum. In many instances, builders double the number of SRA occupants by forging documents and names.