A senior official from the state's urban development department said that they have issued a directive for revision of the DP under Section 154 of the MRTP Act.
Till the final version of the master plan comes out, the current proposed draft development 2034 and the earlier 1991 DP are both applicable. It is perhaps due to this, that the chief minister's decision of scrapping the controversial DP has turned out to be a farce, say activists.
A senior official from the state's urban development department said that they have issued a directive for revision of the DP under Section 154 of the MRTP Act. "As per this directive, the reservation put at various places in the controversial DP will remain stringent. Besides, the Development Control Rules, 1991 will also applicable till the final plan comes out," he added.
As a result, Mumbai will have two master plans. "This will bring the city's development to a grinding halt, and the real estate sector is already progressing at a snail's pace. Now, new DP in addition to the earlier one will dampen the development altogether," said a developer wishing not to be identified.
Pankaj Joshi, executive director at Urban Development Research Institute told dna that the government is 'fooling people'. "With much fanfare, the CM said that they are scrapping the controversial DP. In reality, the new DP will be applicable till the final one comes out. So, many developers, promoters and land grabbers will do as they wish through the new DP. There is a lot of confusion and many will people will take benefit of this situation," added Joshi.
Congress legislator Amin Patel from Kalbadevi was of the opinion that the city's development would come to a standstill for a minimum of two years. He said that the government promised that the amended DP will be published for suggestions and objections in four months.
"I am sure that within four months, they will not able to rectify the gross errors committed in the proposed DP 2034. It will take at least a year to do so. And once again, the suggestions and objections will take more than six months. Therefore, at least for two years, no residential proposal will be approved by the BMC," Patel added.
Why scrapped blueprint was builder-friendly
While preparing the development plan, the BMC had appointed developers in the informal committee. The civic body had constituted the panel where they elected people who were consulting the developers. The officers included Ashok Kale, former director at BMC; Ashok Jain, former deputy engineer at BMC; Shrinivas Jain, former deputy engineer at BMC, currently working with the Romell developers group; and Rajan Athale, former executive director at BMC, who has been working with the Kalpataru Group. Sources in BMC told dna that because of the presence of the developers in the proposed DP 2034, it was made more developer-friendly.
"Besides the special Development Control Regulations – 3.6, they added that the if the developers obtained the NOC or offer letter from the Mumbai board, then for these projects, the DCR 1991 would be applicable, instead of the proposed one. In the other plan, the Intimation of Disapproval was mentioned. These people on the board had relaxed the norms so that their groups could take the development and redevelopment projects smoothly," sources alleged.
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