According to a Times of India report,The BMC’s draft Development Plan (DP) 2014-2034 recently included a proposal for the redevelopment of old buildings that fall in Mumbai’s airport’s “funnel zone”—the approach path of low-flying aircraft.
The civic body has proposed, the buildings that face height restrictions because of their proximity to the airport be identified and put into a separate category for special privileges to make redevelopment financially viable for builders and residents.
The buildings fall under what’s called a funnel zone, which is an imaginary, cone-shaped volume extending upwards from the two short ends of a runway. This is kept free of obstructions. The DP draft was recently cleared by the civic body, which comprises corporators. The state government is the final authority to make changes before approving it.
A majority of buildings in the funnel zone, especially those in Vile Parle and Santacruz, are 40 to 50 years old and are in need of redevelopment.
So, funnel zone residents have demanded that their buildings be categorised as ‘Public Infrastructure Affected Zone’ and the government provide an increased base FSI that can be sold as TDR to recover redevelopment costs of height-restricted structures.
Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said, “For instance, if the ready reckoner rate in Vile Parle is INR 100 per sq. ft. and the TDR is being used in Borivali, where the rate is INR 50 per sq. ft., then you can build 2 sq. ft.”
Architect Shrikrishna Shevade said, “We met Mehta in January because no special provisions for funnel zone buildings were in the proposed Development Control (DC) rules. He agreed with us. Later, we met a number of top bureaucrats and DP recommendation committee members. But when in March the panel submitted its report, there was nothing for funnel zone buildings. So we met the corporators, and all supported us. On July 31, improvements committee chairman Bala Nar included our proposal in the DP recommendations hours before the DP draft was cleared by the civic general body.”
Shevade said, “The average size of a housing plot in Vile Parle is 500 sq m and it would take about INR 12.5 Cr. for demolition, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Without TDR, this is not an option that the residents, mostly senior citizens, could have afforded.”
(Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
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