The State Urban Development department on Thursday issued a notification to change the reservation of the mayor’s residence in Shivaji Bungalow to “Grand Memorial of Swargiya Balasaheb Thackeray” in the current Development Plan (DP) 1991. As part of the process, the state has invited suggestions and objections regarding the change of reservation from the public in the next one month.
Civic officials of the Development Plan Department pointed said according to the notification, the changes will have to be made in DP 1991 as well as the previous one, DP 1967. “We have already proposed the changes in the reservation in DP 2034 that has been sent to the state and Town Planning Department. But we will have to make the change in the existing DP as well as the previous one since condition of both plans prevail on the land,” he said. The official said residents will be able to submit their suggestions and objections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the deputy director of the Town Planning Department and the Urban Development Department after which the changes will be carried out.
The notification that was issued on September 7 says the state has appointed a committee, which will develop the Thackeray Memorial on the plot measuring 12,928 sqm – which is now the mayor’s residence. It also says that the improvement committee and the general body of the BMC had previously approved the hand over of the land to a trust appointed by the state government for a period of 30 years.
While the previous reservation of the mayor’s bungalow was next to the place marked as green area, the new reservation will only be the Thackeray Memorial. The state government’s notification comes five months after the BMC sent a letter to the Urban Development Department saying the reservation for the green zone be changed.
“In the DP of 1967, the area was marked simply as a green zone even though the heritage bungalow was present. Subsequently, in the DP 1991, the plot was marked as a green zone and mayor’s bungalow. However, we had to ask for the change since no construction work for the Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial can happen until the ‘green zone’ reservation is replaced with a reservation for the Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial Trust,” said a civic official.
