Mumbai: Unauthorised structures at Raghuvanshi Mills razed

Mumbai: The civic ward of Lower Parel held a two-day inspection and demolition drive against unauthorised structures at Raghuvanshi Mills. This comes two months after 14 people died in a devastating fire which spread through two rooftop eateries in Kamala Mills on December 29, 2018.

According to the officer, unauthorised structures at 40 commercial establishments have been razed which includes sheds, fancy signboards, frames, illegal extensions found at the entrances, etc. The commercial establishment against whom action initiated includes posh showrooms like Mercedes service centre, chandelier showroom, studio, and others.

The Assistant Commissioner of the civic ward Devendra Kumar Jain said in last two days inspection and action been taken by the officers from the fire brigade, building and factories, licence department, shops and establishments, assessment department of the civic body to check whether the establishments which are running at the Raghuvanshi Mills have proper licences or not, however, many found flaunting norms and hence action had been initiated.

During the action materials seized includes Bhatti (furnace), three liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders. In addition, the hotel named ‘Zen Cafe’ has been sealed for having no licence and fire department No Objection Certificate (NOC), also BMC sized inflammable silk cloth material from Krishna Silk Industry which was spread on 5,000 square feet of area in the basement of the same building. BMC found around seven tonnes of silk cloth from the basement which was used a storage place.

Jain added, “According to the Development Control Rules(DCR), the basement can be put to only specific kinds of uses like storage of household or other non-hazardous goods, store-rooms, bank locker or safe deposits and parking spaces among other things. However, we found a huge quantity of silk cloth rolls over there which cannot be stored in the basement. As such considering these can endanger lives of many the material has been seized.”