Excise dept gets a taste of BMC’s red tapism

The state excise department’s headquarters, which has been ready since the last eight months, is awaiting an OC from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The ground-plus seven-storey building behind the BMC headquarters has been denied the OC as it has failed to fulfil “several conditions

MUMBAI: Developers are known to get the runaround by civic bodies for the crucial occupation certificate (OC), which in turn keeps home buyers in the limbo for long. However, in a singular case, this bureaucratic rigmarole has enmeshed a government body itself.

Mumbai, India - June 23, 2023:New Building of Maharashtra State Excise Dept,behind BMC head Office, at CSMT in Mumbai, India, on Friday, June 23, 2023. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The state excise department’s headquarters, which has been ready since the last eight months, is awaiting an OC from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The ground-plus seven-storey building behind the BMC headquarters has been denied the OC as it has failed to fulfil “several conditions”. This has been conveyed to the public works department (PWD), which has constructed the building, by the civic body’s building proposals (BP) department.

The plot earlier housed the bungalow of excise commissioner and Boribunder excise station. The excise department, which is the state’s major income earner, has been operating from the Old Custom House, near Horniman Circle, since 1878. The department has never had an office of its own. The excise superintendent of Mumbai city and suburbs also operated from here.

The decision of a separate headquarter was taken by Devendra Fadnavis when he was the chief minister of the state. The old bungalow standing on 3000 square meters was vacated in 2018, following which the construction of the building started. The constructed area admeasures 5983 square metres and the basement measures 1100 square metres. It will house the office of commissioner, both superintendents and all excise officers. It will also have the Bori Bunder excise station and a lock up. The total cost of the project is ₹63 crore.

“We received an NOC from the fire brigade with great difficulty nearly four months ago. Now the BP department of BMC has raised many queries. They have said that there were three plots on which the building has come up, which need to be amalgamated into one plot in the records. We are now taking up the matter with the Mumbai island city collector Rajiv Nivatkar,” said a key officer from the excise department. “The civic body has told the PWD that since some trees were removed, compensatory afforestation must be done. The plot is quite small and there is not enough place to plant more.”

The officer also added that the department has been asked to furnish no-dues of tax to BMC via PWD and wondered why the objection was being raised now when “we have already got a full commencement certificate”. An officer from PWD’s architect department concurred.

Additional chief secretary (excise), Milind Mhaiskar, said, “The BMC has asked us to fulfil various conditions and we are trying to do it expeditiously.” Ramchandra Sawant, executive engineer of the BP department said, “They (excise) will have to comply with all conditions to get the OC.”

After excise department vacates the premises, the space will be taken up by the city collectorate, which is also running short of space.