Now, BMC allows offices in residential buildings

Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has issued an order amending a provision of the Development Control Promotion Regulation (DCPR) allowing offices in residential buildings

Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal has issued an order amending a provision of the Development Control Promotion Regulation (DCPR) allowing offices in residential buildings.

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Speaking to HT, Vilas Nagalkar, an architect and a member of Practising Engineers, Architects and Town Planners Association (PEATA), said, “Apart from the ground floor of many residential buildings, shops were allowed up to second floor as per the development control regulations DCPR2034. However, if an office were proposed, it could not be approved due to certain conditions in the DCPR. This anomaly has been removed by the BMC and now offices will be permitted with a separate staircase.’’

A senior officer of the development plan department of the BMC said that many professionals like chartered accountants, lawyers, tax consultants and management consultants found it difficult to operate and they had their offices set up informally.

Many a times, they would make requests for amendments and hence the BMC has decided to amend it under the ease of business.

Earlier, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India- Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (CREDAI–MCHI) made a representation to the BMC on November 5, when the BMC commissioner had made a remark ‘Please examine and process’. The MCHI had made an appeal to allow business offices and service establishments in residential buildings by altering or amending Table C of Regulation 34 of the DCPR.

The note also mentioned that restaurants/food courts were permissible beyond the second floor in commercial buildings under the development control regulations of 1991.