BMC reverses decision, to give Vikhroli plot for court building

After being rapped by the Bombay High Court for changing the reservation of a plot of land allotted to construct a multi-storey building, which would house the Vikhroli Magistrate court, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has reversed its decision in the recently approved draft development plan.

The corporation through their Counsel Ram Apte and Advocate Sagar Patil, recently submitted a decision of the civic body to reverse the reservation of the land from multipurpose hall to court building.

The decision was tendered while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Joshi Jatashankar, who had raised the issue.

Earlier, the court expressed displeasure over the decision of the civic body to change the reservation of a plot, and had directed the Maharashtra government to resolve the problem at the earliest.

The plot was reserved for a working woman's hostel but the reservation was deleted and in its place a 12-storey court building was planned. But the BMC, in its revised draft development plan republished on March 27, had shown that the plot is reserved a for multipurpose community centre.

However, the court had told the government that if the decision of changing the reservation on the plot was not reversed, then it would have to give an alternate plot of the same size in Vikhroli.

The state government had in October 2012, granted permission for the construction of the court building, and Rs 8 crore was the estimated cost of the construction. The construction cost was revised in September 2015, and the revised cost was Rs 25 crore.