BMC bid to unlock NDZs may benefit big business houses most

It has proposed that if the owners of such lands construct affordable homes and social amenities on 33 per cent of the built-up space and hand these over free of cost to the BMC and set aside another 33 per cent area for public open spaces and institutional space then the remaining land will be tagged as a ‘residential zone’ and would be developable with a floor space index (FSI) of 100 per cent of the size of the entire land parcel. But this norm has been applied only for land parcels sized 4,000 square metres or more.

While the existing development plan had marked 125 pockets totalling 4,378 hectares across the state under the NDZ category, senior civic officials confirmed that only a handful of these meet the stipulated size norm.

Those owing these large land parcels include construction industry giants, a top business family and a philanthropist outfit that has now ventured into the real estate market.

Sources said releasing these land parcels for construction and permitting a high FSI could bring in big rewards for these beneficiaries with most of these big land parcels situated in upscale areas in Powai, Vikhroli, Bhandup, Mulund in the Eastern Suburbs, and Versova, Malad, and Goregaon in the Western Suburbs.

Some such owners include the Godrej and Boyce Co, the Hiranandani Group, the Raheja Group, families of Sir Vallabhdas Khot and the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Group.

Existing norms restrict construction to just 20 per cent of the plot size in NDZs, but plots coming under the new scheme will carry construction potential which is almost four times the plot size.

A previous draft of the revised development plan, which was scrapped last April, had invited flak for selectively opening up NDZ areas. Incidentally, the previous draft had proposed land use for public purposes on 1,712 hectares built-up space on such lands.

But under the latest draft, unless those owning smaller NDZs pool lands to join the scheme, senior civic officials conceded that the total built-up space for public use might be lesser than the previous draft had envisioned. To promote the new scheme, the civic body has permitted amalgamation of such lands provided they are contiguous in nature.

Royal palms land marked for car shed

The revised development plan has marked two sites for the contentious Metro-III car depot. It has reserved a 30-hectare land inside Royal Palms on the periphery of the Aarey Colony as an alternate site for the facility, while persisting with a proposal to set aside 30-hectare inside the Aarey forest land for thecarshed. Sources however said the government is wary of considering the former option as it would involve compensating owners of the Royal Palms in the form of Floor Space Index, which may trigger allegations.