Cops oppose razing of buildings on site,ATS hq plan stuck

The Central Region headquarters of the city police,which houses the office of the Additional Commissioner of Police (Central Region),is located at the Bawala Compound site.

“The Bawala Compound plot falls under the Mumbai Police Commissioner. The construction of the new ATS building cannot begin until we receive a go-ahead from the Mumbai Police to demolish the existing structures on the land. We have offered to demolish the existing structures and give the police an extra 400 sq m in return. The Mumbai Police’s offices can occupy the ground and first floor of the new building,and the upper floors can be occupied by the ATS,” said a senior officer in the Maharashtra State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation Ltd,who did not wish to be named.

However,speaking to Newsline,Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik said,“It is not possible to demolish the existing structures,as one of them is a heritage building. It is not even possible to make alterations to the building,or construct floors above it.”

The move to construct a new ATS headquarters has been languishing for more than four years. The proposed nine-storey building – which is estimated to cost around Rs 5 crore,with a built-up area of 5,830 sq m — is meant to have a state-of-the-art control room,sound-proof interrogation chambers,an archives section and a computer lab among other features.

The current ATS headquarters is located inside the Mumbai Police’s South Region headquarters compound,and it shares space with the offices of the Additional Commissioner of Police (South Region) and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 2).