BMC begins to demolish 11-storey illegal building

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation finally began to demolish an 11-storey illegal building on Keshavji Naik road in B ward on Wednesday. The structure had been in the line of fire for a year now.

According to the newly appoint B ward officer Uday Kumar Shirurkar, however, the ward was unable to take action against it as it could not find any contractors willing to take up demolition. Mr Shirurkar attributed the unwillingness of contractors to come forward for this project due to the precarious structures around the building, which would be threatened during this demolition.

A BMC officer said, “The structure is illegal and we will take another month to demolish it without affecting the structures around it.” The BMC had demolished a four-storey structure on this plot earlier last year, and came across further construction work on the plot in September last year. Subsequently the BMC sent three notices to the owner of the building.

The owner of the alleged illegal structure, Ibrahim Motiwala, was unavailable for comments.