Sources said the U-turn comes in the backdrop of the Opposition’s allegation that the government had provided undue benefits to the powerful construction lobby through revisions made in the Development Plan (DP).THE BJP government in Maharashtra has withdrawn additional construction rights it had offered to landowners against surrender of land for road widening purposes.
On November 12 last year, the Devendra Fadnavis-led urban development department had amended Mumbai’s development control rules, permitting construction over and above the permissible floor space index (FSI) in such cases. But the department has now issued a fresh notification reversing its own stance.
Sources said the U-turn comes in the backdrop of the Opposition’s allegation that the government had provided undue benefits to the powerful construction lobby through revisions made in the Development Plan (DP).
This is the third time in just over two years when the government has modified its stand on the issue. After it had notified the new transferable development rights (TDR) policy for Mumbai in November, 2016 — where the FSI compensation for land acquired for public reservations and road widening purposes was raised — the Mumbai municipality’s building proposals department had initially cleared construction proposals where the FSI benefit in road widening cases was permitted to be utilised over and above the permissible FSI.
But this was halted in January 2018, after the UD department pulled up the municipality over “incorrect interpretation” of the new policy, with the government town planners claiming that the benefit was meant to be utilised within the overall FSI cap. In other words, for building proposals submitted after the January deadline, additional construction rights were not awarded and the compensation in lieu of road setback was administered within the FSI limits.
But on November 12, 2018, the department altered its position. Acceding to the demands being raised by the construction industry, it revised rules conferring additional construction rights (over and above permissible FSI) for such cases.
At that time, questions were raised on whether such a substantial modification (it would result in the overall increase in FSI) in development regulation could be carried out by means of a corrigendum.
On Thursday, the department’s notification admitted that the move had “resulted in the overall increase in FSI in some plots”, and that it “should not have been included in the corrigendum”. The government also said that in “public interest”, it was expedient to modify the regulation. Reverting to its original stance, the government has now positioned that the FSI benefit in lieu of road setback can be only be administered within the permissible FSI. Only in cases where the FSI from the road setback remained after it has been utilised within the admissible limit, it will be allowed to be loaded additionally.
But construction industry experts said this was hardly ever the case. The move will impact hundreds of societies, especially in the suburbs of Mumbai. The construction industry had objected to curtailing of the paid FSI to the net plot area (after the deduction of areas reserved for public purposes). The latest withdrawal will lower the FSI potential further.
Sources in the government, meanwhile, said that permitting the FSI benefit over and above the admissible FSI was a “mistake”. “The compensation benefit was 100 per cent of the plot area originally. In November 2016, we enhanced it to 200 per cent. Allowing this to be utilised over and above the permissible FSI was undue. The mistake has been rectified,” said a source.
The government has invited public suggestions and objections over its latest move. Incidentally, civic sources said that several proposals were cleared between November 2016 and January 2018, and later again between November 13, 2018 until now, when the benefit was sanctioned over and above the permissible FSI. They won’t be affected by the reversal.
Meanwhile, with Lok Sabha elections in mind, the chief minister has decided to slash the premiums for additional FSI in the case of redevelopment of tenanted properties in the suburbs from 50 per cent to 25 per cent.
