Illegal constructions in the city that made news

Officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation have confirmed that prima facie, it appears that illegal alterations in the building, especially in the basement, led to the collapse of Altaf Mansion, the building in Mahim that collapsed on Sunday.

While little attention is paid to complaints of illegal construction received by the BMC, several cases that hit the headlines in the recent past shone the spotlight on the issue of unauthorised construction. Here are some.

Lucky Compound, Mumbra: As many as 74 people died and 60 were injured when a seven-storey, unauthorised building in the Shil-Phata area gave way in Mumbra in April. It is alleged that civic officials were bribed by the builders to ignore the legality of the construction. The entire building had come up in a record three months.

Campa Cola Compound, Worli: More than 100 flats in seven buildings received a demolition notice earlier this year, after the country's highest court refused to regularise the floors that had been constructed without permissions. The buildings' residents had adopted the legal route to plead for regularisation, a common enough method adopted by builders. In this case, the legal trail ended with the Supreme Court stating that the illegal construction was too blatant to be regularised. After further pleas on humanitarian grounds, the residents received a temporary stay from the Supreme Court in May this year.

Shubhada and Sukhada CHS, Worli: Several politicians residing in these complexes had been allowed by the civic authorities to carry out illegal alterations in their flats without necessary clearances. Last month, they were given three months time to either regularise or remove the illegal alterations.

Sara Sahara and Manish Market: Two illegal shopping complexes, which were gutted in a major fire in November last year, are back in operation despite assurances from civic bodies that their reconstruction would not be allowed.