Maharashtra frees 6.4 acres of Indu Mill land from coastal regulation zone

The town planning department under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earlier valued the land at Rs 1413.48 crore. The deal between NTC and the Maharashtra government is that the former would be permitted to sell the transferable development rights (TDR) generated on the plot. The amount realised over and above the fixed land value would be released to Maharashtra in the form of a grant for the memorial work.

But since the prevalent restrictions imposed in CRZ areas would not have permitted utilising the full development potential of a mill, top government sources said that the understanding between the sides would not have materialised unless the portions of the land were pulled out of the CRZ classification.

Following the new demarcation, the Urban Development (UD) department on Monday issued a notification deleting the freed up land from the “Special Industrial Zone-3” and reserving this for the “Grand Memorial of Bharat Ratna Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar” by including it in the industrial zone. The department’s notification states that, “The Supreme Court has upheld the decisions of the Bombay High Court recognising Backbay and the Mahim Bay areas as ‘bay’, and in light of this the MCZMA has been considering the cases on the basis of 100 meter maximum CRZ limit along these bays. “Sources also confirmed that this is the first time that the “bay” classification was being used for a government-owned property.

The latest notification comes within a week of Maharashtra revising the TDR policy for Mumbai, where it has permitted the generated TDR to be loaded in the island city areas as well. The NTC, which possesses other mill lands in the island city, had demanded this condition during negotiations with the state for the Indu Mill property.

Sources also said the development clears the decks for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority to kickstart the work for building the memorial. The BJP sees the Ambedkar memorial project— which had also featured in its assembly poll campaign— as a big draw to woo backward class voters during the Mumbai municipal poll early next year. Sources said that the CM is keen to start work at the site before the model code of conduct for the civic polls comes into force. Meanwhile, the state has also written to the Union Environment Ministry for relaxing CRZ norms for the remaining portion of the mill land as a special case for permitting the utilisation of the TDR in these areas too.