Builders, CIDCO lock horns

MUMBAI, Sep 1: The strong builder lobby of the Vasai-Virar region is taking on the City and Industrial Development Corporation CIDCO fo...

MUMBAI, Sep 1: The strong builder lobby of the Vasai-Virar region is taking on the City and Industrial Development Corporation CIDCO for the latter8217;s incompetence to announce a development plan for the region. Even as the last date to submit the final plan is fast approaching, CIDCO officials are not showing any signs of action.

As per the provisions, the special planning authority has to submit the final plan to the State Government for its sanction on or before September 6. If CIDCO fails to do this then there will not be any development plan for the region which is legally valid. This will create a vacuum which means unauthorised construction and haphazard development, say builders.

In 1990, the state government had appointed CIDCO as a Special Planning Authority for this region replacing the Bombay Metropolitan Region Development Authority BMRDA. CIDCO took almost two years to prepare and publish the interim development plan, which was full of anomalies. It was expected that the final plan wouldbe published after hearing suggestions and objections from the public.

However, it turned out other way round and this time the objections, suggestions were to the tune of about 6000. It is mandatory for any planning authority to finalise the plan within three years from the date of publication. It was felt by the builders that CIDCO8217;s Vasai office may not be able to complete the legal formalities before the final date. But even after almost eight years, CIDCO could not finalise even a Development Plan about the implementation.

Recently in many building permission cases, CIDCO has refused to grant the development permission due to expectations of substantial modification in the published draft development plan. If major modifications are expected, the plan needs to be republished and once again the entire procedure of calling the objections/suggestions and conducting the hearing will have to be followed.