The municipal corporation has served a notice to South Mumbai’s Noble House building, which illegally reconstructed and added three floors.
The building at Masjid Bunder on Kambekar Street was originally a five-storied dilapidated building.
On December 6, three-year-old Masood Patel, who lived in Noble House, died after slab from the ceiling fell on him. The land owner reconstructed it after demolishing it completely in 1992.
No permission was sought from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for demolishing and reconstructing the building. In the second week of January, the civic body’s B ward office served a notice (dna has a copy of it) to the land owner under 351 of Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act.
dna in its December 7, 2013, edition and January 1, 2014, edition published news stories highlighting the illegalities of Noble House and the danger posed to the tenants.
Noble House is now an eight-storey structure with a terrace on the eighth floor, which is occupied.
Residents claimed that building is weak as there are major cracks in the columns and beams.
While the eighth floor is supposed to be a terrace area, three flats have been built on it, causing further danger to the already weak building.
dna has been constantly writing about the illegal buildings in the area – B ward, parts of C ward and E ward have many such building where illegal floors are raised in the disguise of repairing them. Land owners and developers make money by putting several lives in danger.
“Back in 1992, the ward office had issued a notice under section 351. But the owners were trying to negotiate while the construction was going on. The flats were sold and families settled in. The then deputy municipal commissioner (zone – I) had given the final order declaring the building structure totally unauthorised,” said a civic official from the ward.
Assistant commissioner of B ward Kishore Gandhi confirmed the notice was issued and that the owner has been given seven working days to reply. “We usually give grace time and expect a reply in 10 days. Since we have not received any reply, we will initiate action,” said Gandhi.
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