Mumbai civic body mulls scheme to clear bottlenecks on city streets

The policy is being planned to clear bottlenecks along the Swami Vivekananda (SV) Road in western suburbs and Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg in the eastern suburbs

With an aim to clear bottlenecks in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is looking at incentivising development of plots adjoining roads or affecting the alignment of infrastructure projects by giving higher floor space index (FSI).

The BMC is focusing on rehabilitation and resettlement for road widening projects to avoid shifting tenants or owners to far-away locations. (File)

The policy is being planned to clear bottlenecks along the Swami Vivekananda (SV) Road in western suburbs and Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Marg in the eastern suburbs, which witness vehicle pile-ups during peak hours. Although the plan is for these two roads, the policy will be applicable across the city and suburbs, a senior civic official said, adding it will be finalised in the coming weeks.

The BMC is focusing on rehabilitation and resettlement for road widening projects to avoid shifting tenants or owners to far-away locations, which invites their ire and puts projects in cold storage. Developers or plot owners who accommodate the tenants will get an incentive FSI (permissible built-up area to plot area) of 4.

The development plan (DP) 2034 provides an FSI of 2 in the city and suburbs. An FSI of 4 has been proposed to lure plot owners. While the DP is a 20-year blueprint for the city, the DCR is a set of building codes, which were released on May 27, 2016.

Although the plan is yet to be approved, the BMC has started planning measures to ensure better implementation of DP 2034. While only 33% of the provisions made in DP 1991 were implemented, the BMC managed to implement only 18% of the plans from DP 1964. Recently, it also decided to undertake “relationship marketing” to communicate with land owners about lucrative accommodation-reservation policies.