Bldrs with upcoming projects in spot

Developer To Demolish Plinth And Seek Fresh Nod Under New DCR

Mumbai: A suburban developer could be the first in the city to halt work at two of his construction sites, demolish the plinth and seek fresh approvals under the BMC's new building rules. 
    The amended development control rules, approved by the state government early this month, allows developers to utilize 35% extra area for residential projects and 20% for commercial buildings. The BMC will charge a premium for this compensatory floor space index (FSI)---the permissible built-up area vis-a-vis the plot size---and hopes to collect around Rs 1,000 crore each year. 
    But many builders with ongoing projects are upset with the new policy and are believed to have sought legal advice. This is because the BMC insisted that the newlaws will apply to even underconstruction buildings, which received permissions under the earlier rules. 
    Municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar said further sanctions to complete ongoing projects will be given only under the new rule. Last week, developers met Kumar and pleaded with him not to include under-construction buildings. They said it would affect their calculations and ruin the design of their projects. However, the civic chief was unmoved and told the delegation to avail of the 'compensatoryFSI' and pay a premium for it. 
    However, on January 24, developer Mayfair Housing wrote to the commissioner that it would revise its plans for two residential projects which have already commenced in Vikhroli and Andheri. Nayan Shah of Mayfair Housing said hewould demolish the plinth of the Vikhroli plot so that the building could be designed differently after the new plans are approved by the BMC. At his Andheri site, 
Shah said he had stopped work several weeks ago. "We have accepted the BMC's fait accompli. Since the last eight months, we could not obtain approvals and it has caused huge financial loss in terms of loan interest and overhead expenses,'' he said. 
    "Fortunately, we have not sold any flats in these two projects,'' Shah said. He said his revised plan will have a larger habitable area, thanks to the 35% compensatory FSI offered by the BMC under the new policy. The premium he will pay for this extra area works out to Rs 6 crore for the Vikhroli project. 
    Many developers used to misuse the building concessions granted by municipal commissioners in the past. Areas like flower beds, ducts, car decks, which were free of FSI, were illegally merged into the room to make it bigger. The builder would sell these areas to the buyer at market rates. There were cases where these free of FSI areas were almost double the size of the permitted built-up area. The new rules have put a halt to this. 
    Over 500 projects, which had received preliminary approvals from the 
    BMC or are currently under development, are likely to be affected. 
    The building proposals department has sent back all these project files to the respective architects and asked them to resubmit their plans. 
    The department will scrutinize and re-submit all such plans to the BMC chief engineer in 15 days. A project file will be sent to the commissioner only once for clearance and not multiple times. The civic chief will only approve staircase premium, compensatory FSI and relaxation of open spaces surrounding a building. 
    "It is not necessary that the developer use the compensatory FSI only for flower bed, balcony, voids, elevation features etc. It can be used for these purposes and/or for enlarging the room sizes, and/ or for additional rooms and/ or for more dwelling units," a BMC circular said.