dna impact: Illegal floor of Masjid Bunder building pulled down

A month after dna reported about the tearing hurry in which a building landlord had added illegal floors to a two-storey strucutre in South Mumbai, the city administration on Thursday demolished the illegally constructed portion.

This newspaper had reported how the floor was added, with photographs showing various stages of the construction to the building situated on 45, Essaji Street at Masjid Bunder.

The building had been purchased by Meraj Abdul Gaffar on October 29 this year.

Gaffar immediately undertook construction work of an additional floor by hiring a civil contractor without submitting the mandatory building plan or proposal to the municipal ward office or the municipality’s Building Proposal Department.

The construction was completed within a week such that the work was started and completed during the days when the municipal offices remained shut for Diwali.

The illegal third floor would have opened up 1,200 square feet of space for sale. At current market prices, a square foot is pegged between Rs20,000 and Rs25,000 in the area. So, the landlord would have made at least Rs2.40crore.

After ascertaining that the additional floor was illegal, the municipal ward office demolished the floor.

Assistant municipal commissioner of the ward, Kishor Gandhi, said that a notice had been served to the landlord before taken acting action.”