Bonanza for Navi Mum builders and residents of old structures

Mumbai: In a major reprieve for Navi Mumbai's builders and residents of old constructions, the Bombay high court on Thursday vacated a twoyear stay, allowing residential buildings to change user status to residential-cum-commercial on paying a premium to their municipality. The change of user rules is applicable only on buildingsthat abut a road more than 15 metres wide and are on a plot admeasuring at least 1,000sq m.      The order would benefit hundreds of buildings in Vashi, Nerul, Koparkhairane, Sanpada, Juinagar and Airoli, which can now apply for a commercial component in the range of 10-30%. More importantly, the buildings would be eligibleto availof construction rightsin theformof floor space index (FSI) of 1.5 instead of 1 when they go in for redevelopment, making them an attractive proposition for developers.      A division bench of Chief JusticeMohit Shah andJustice Nitin Jamdar said the order would come into effect on September 1, before which the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) would have to place the proposal for notifying the rulesbeforetheir generalbody.      The court was hearing a petition filed by Vashi's JN3 Building Apartment Owners' Association, which represented some old buildings in the area. According to the petitioners, due to the low construction quality of the buildings, many were in a dilapidated state and uninhabitable. Further, there was no parking facilities.      As per development control regulations, the FSI available for a residentialbuilding is1.In 2008,theNMMCthrough a notification brought into force the rules, which allowed change of user status from residential to residential-plus-commercial with the specifications mentioned in this article in the contextof thecourtorder.But a Navi Mumbai resident, Sandeep Thakur, filed a piece of public interest litigation against this. In January 2010, the court stayedthechangeof user rules. User change will boost realty businessD evelopers and real estate brokers are expecting a surge in the realty business in Navi Mumbai after the high court verdict regarding change of user policy. The Navi Mumbai secretary of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), Manohar Shroff, told TOI, "It will definitely give an impetus to real estate development and sales. Eventually, that will be good for the industry. I foresee more structures coming up in the next few years."      He said the change will help consumers (property owners) gain more FSI. A Vashi-based broker said, "At present, a lot of investors have bought flats in Navi Mumbai and kept them locked as they want to hold on to their properties till a revision in realty rates occurs after the international airport comes up. Also, builders have permission from Cidco and the Airports Authority of India to develop tall towers in the vicinity of the airport land. All these factors will boost real estate here." TNN