Clearing the decks for redevelopment of over another 1,000 buildings in the island city,the state government is planning to give a higher FSI for even C-category cessed buildings to allow for taller buildings in their place. At present,A (pre-1940) and B category (1940-50) cessed structures are eligible for higher FSI while developers have to stick to prevailing FSI during reconstruction of C-category (1950-69). The state government is working on amending the Development Control Rules (DCR) 33/7 governing FSI for all pre-1969 cessed buildings in the island city. These are buildings whose tenants pay a repair cess to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). As of today,there are 16,000 such buildings with another 3,000-odd structures having gone in for redevelopment. Most C category,four-decade old buildings are in dire need of redevelopment. Also,much of these are poor quality constructions built with spurious raw materials since they were built during the acute cement shortage of the sixties and are prone to collapsing during monsoon, said a senior state government official adding that an amendment to allow higher FSI for even C category cessed buildings on its way. Under DCR 33/7,A-category buildings are allowed maximum FSI. Such buildings can be redeveloped using an FSI of 2.5 or the FSI required for rehabilitating tenants,plus 50% FSI as incentive,whichever is higher. Following a recent Supreme Court go-ahead for the policy,MHADA has sanctioned projects of several developers who have been allowed to use an FSI of 2.5 to 6 to reconstruct A-category buildings on plots as small as 60 sq m to 500 sq m along the congested South Mumbai alleys. Another amendment to DCR 33/7 proposing an increase in minimum FSI for all cessed buildings from 2.5 to 3 has been pending with the Chief Minister for long. If the amendment comes,the higher FSI will be allowed to even projects where up to 25% of the total structures are non-cessed,relatively newer structures, said the official. Flights too close for comfortTwo aircraft from Chennai,waiting to land in Mumbai,had breached the limit for separation on Saturday,airport officials said Tuesday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is probing the incident. The prescribed limit is 5 nautical miles. Jet Airways Boeing 9W 2119 and Air Indias IC 174 came within 4.75 nautical miles of each other. When the Traffic Collision Avoidance System in both aircraft sounded an alert,they increased the gap.. Both aircraft were on the radar when there was a breach by 0.25 nautical miles. An advisory was issued immediately and separation between the aircraft was increased, an airport official said. The incident could have been a result of a minor error in judgement and congestion at the airport,oficials said.
