Bandra Kurla Complex, one more biz hub in Mumbai downsized

A proposal to denotify the entire Backbay Reclamation Area, the city’s oldest business district — extending from Nariman Point and Cuffe Parade to Girgaum Chowpatty — as a special planning zone was under consideration, the sources said. These areas will cease to be special planning zones following the denotification. Senior state officials said that town planning norms and development control (DC) regulations applicable elsewhere in Mumbai will become applicable to them as well. Separate development control norms exist for the three business districts.

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While senior bureaucrats argued that the decision comes in the wake of the BJP-led government’s plan to have uniform DC norms for most areas in Mumbai, the move is being seen by some officials as linked to private commercial interests.

Construction rights for residential activity in these denotified areas will rise following the move. “There are residential blocks in areas denotified in BKC and ODC, which were developed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority before the government notified them as business destinations,” a senior state government official said.

The area denotified from the BKC and ODC layouts accounts for roughly 15 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the original area notified for these commercial districts, records reveal.

Incidentally, the CM-led Urban Development department processed the proposals after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)— the special planning authority for all the three business districts—agreed to surrender these lands. For BKC, Fadnavis excluded a Mhada-owned land in Bandra Reclamation area. Sources confirmed that Mhada had originally initiated the denotification proposal. On October 8, 2014, the agency had first approached the government in this context.

Mhada had entered into a joint venture with a real estate consortium for redeveloping a 2.84 lakh sq feet of land in the Reclamation Area currently occupied by transit shelters and slum tenements. Real estate giant DB Realty Group is part of the private consortium, which also has four other builders as partners.

Mhada’s communication— signed by its then Vice President Satish Gavai—had argued that construction for the redevelopment would be restricted to 1.5 times the net plot area as per norms prevalent for BKC, whereas a Mhada colony could be developed with a floor space index (FSI) of 3 under development control regulations applicable in other areas. Official documents show that the state’s housing department endorsed Mhada’s proposal.

“Mhada had proposed that an FSI of 3 for such redevelopment be allowed within BKC too, alternatively suggesting that the 52 hectare land be denotified,” said a senior state official.

“The CM opted for the second option,” he added. Government sources, meanwhile, said that a senior city BJP politician had aggressively pitched for Mhada’s proposal. A senior Mhada official said that another proposal for slum redevelopment was in process, where Mhada has entered into a joint venture with one Wizard Constructions Pvt Ltd. Additional Metropolitan Commissioner (MMRDA) Sanjay Sethi said exclusion of the 52-hectare area from the BKC won’t have a significant impact on growth of the financial district.

“The main financial district is not affected by the exclusion. The character of the excluded portion was entirely different. Also, the MMRDA itself owned no land in this portion,” Sethi said. In ODC’s case, the MMRDA itself approached the government for excluding the 38-hectare land. Most of this land too is Mhada-owned.

33% FSI hike in BKC’s most sought-after zone

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has sanctioned a proposal to hike floor space index (FSI) for residential activity in BKC’s G-block from 3 to 4. Spread across 135 hectares, the G-block in BKC is the most sought after business zone in BKC. An MMRDA official said that the move will mainly benefit development on 8 hectares of unsold land earmarked for residential activity. Fadnavis has also increased FSI for mixed use and commercial activity in ODC.