Though it is obvious that Indiabulls Realty shelled out an astounding Rs474 crore for the Poddar Mills plot on a firm assurance of availing the incentive FSI for public car park scheme, the scheme seems to be increasingly coming under the scanner of urban development officials and planners.
There is a growing feeling in the urban development department of the state government that the scheme has outlasted its purpose and needs to be amended or scrapped.
“Approximately 23,000 car parking slots have been given approval for in the Sewri-Worli-Lower Parel area alone. Considering the developments in this area, we believe there are sufficient car parks. It has reached a saturation point,” said a senior official from the urban development ministry.
“We will now have to take a rational look at whether there is any requirement for a car park in this area. Suburbs are a different issue. We have expressed our concern to the BMC commissioner and it is up to the high-powered committee under him to take a call on more car parks are required in Parel-Worli area,” added the official.
As it stands, however, the state policy of offering FSI sops to create public parking lots on private land is turning into a major bonanza for builders. Around a dozen high-end residential towers — of around 30 to 70 storeys each — are currently coming up, mostly in the Worli-Parel area, thanks to the government’s scheme of offering extra FSI to builders who construct such parking lots.
In 2009, the government offered builders up to 4 FSI if they constructed multi-storey parking lot on a portion of their land and handed it over to the civic administration free of cost. (FSI is generally restricted to 1.33 in the island city and 1 in the suburbs.
FSI is the ratio of the permissible built-up area vis-a-vis the plot size. A 4 FSI means that if a plot is 1,000 sq m, the built-up area — either vertical or horizontal — can be up to 4,000 sq m.)
Indiabulls is already a huge beneficiary of this car park scheme.
Using the parking FSI, Indiabulls, it is learnt, is constructing a 65-storey ultra-luxury residential tower called IndiaBulls Sky and another 70-storey building, IndiaBulls Forest, at Jupiter Mills, Lower Parel. At Elphinstone Mills, Lower Parel, IndiaBulls has planned a third tower called Suites, which will be about 65 storeys high.
Meanwhile, urban planners warn of further congestion. Former MMRDA chief town planner Vidyadhar Phatak had earlier told DNA that the entire mill district has no proper plan to tackle growth. “With this kind of activity, there will be problems in peak demand on infrastructure. One will see traffic bottlenecks and pressure on water supply,” he said.
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