Mumbai: Rooftop helipads may be allowed

Although the municipality has proposed that such projections may extend up to 1.2 metres beyond the building’s line, the civic chief has also been provided discretionary powers to relax the cap further.

Requesting anonymity, a senior official said that the municipality had toyed with a plan of replicating a planning norm used for luxury towers in Singapore’s Marina Bay, where terraces or rooftops of two buildings are linked through an overhang.

But, for now, city officials have dropped the idea “fearing misuse of the additional buildable space.” For setting up rooftop helipads, the BMC has ruled that a prior permission from the Director General of Civil Aviation, the Union Defence Ministry, and the state government would be mandatory. A registered structural engineer will also have to issue a certificate stating the helipad won’t affect the structural safety of the tower.

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The construction will also have to comply with advance fire fighting norms. The norms also rule that the municipality and the government agencies would have “unrestricted access to such landing pads” in emergency situations.

The regulations have also made an ‘enabling provision’ for permitting a helipad at any other ‘suitable location’ in towers over 200 meters in height. A top business family, a top hospital, and a corporate house have been pushing for permissions to setup rooftop helipads.

The revised rules also provide for creation of rooftop gardens. “The terraces may be used for additional recreational green area beyond the mandatory recreational open space requirement (to be provided on the ground or on a podium),” the draft norms state.

Meanwhile at the ground level, open spaces around buildings will shrink with the municipality diluting planning requirements for the front and side margins of buildings. The move will permit developers to utilise more plot area as buildable space.

“Earlier, several projects put up proposalS for special concessions to the open space norm citing hardships. The relaxation of norms will do away with this need in most cases,” a senior official said.

In fact, the municipality has revised various other building requirements including heights of some of the habitable rooms in a building in order to do away with the need for granting special concessions. “This will, however, impact civic revenue as most of these concessions were available on payment of premium,” a senior official said.

The municipality’s chartered accountants have estimated a total loss in revenue of Rs 700 crore due to the move. To compensate for the losses, the civic body has proposed to collect a new development surcharge, which will be collected on instalment basis,at a rate of 4 per cent of ready reckoner values from the developers.