HC ruling paves way to revamp old buildings in Mumbai suburbs, Thane, Navi Mumbai

Mumbai city news: The state said it will roll out a much-delayed cluster redevelopment policy after Bombay HC cleared the decks

Old, rickety buildings in the suburbs, Navi Mumbai and Thane are all set to get a facelift.

HT PHOTO

The state said it will roll out the much-delayed cluster redevelopment policy in suburban Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, after the Bombay HC cleared the decks for it on Friday. The HC had earlier stayed policy in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and said the government can go ahead only after it studied the impact the revamp will have on the area. The cluster policy takes up an entire sprawl of land for redevelopment and creates public amenities and open spaces, not just redevelop individual dilapidated buildings.

Until Friday’s order, the state’s cluster policy applied only to buildings in the island city, to structures built before 1970 that pay a cess for their upkeep. This policy allowed redevelopment on land parcels that were at least 4,000 sqm, and developers were given a Floor Space Index (ratio of the built-up area to plot area) of 55% more than required to rehabilitate existing residents or 4 — whichever was higher.

The policy for Mumbai’s suburbs will require the minimum area to be 6,000 sqm. It will include redevelopment of slums and old buildings. But unlike in the island city, the maximum FSI will be 3, as more FSI would only choke the already densely populated suburbs.

An official from the state urban development department said a social impact assessment study for the suburbs cautioned against following the same rules as the island city. The official said the department will issue a notification for the suburbs’ cluster policy next week.

In September last year, CM Devendra Fadnavis had announced he wanted to introduce a redevelopment policy for old tenanted buildings in the suburbs.

On Friday, he tweeted: “This (HC’s order) will pave the way for planned development with availability of more public amenities, using the spaces more wisely. Thirty-year-old buildings will be covered under this policy and 50 percent area of slums will also be included.”

In Thane, cluster redevelopment projects will get an FSI of 2.5-4, depending on the width of the road next to the project. To ensure the policy does not further crowd the region, but leads to well-planned urban sprawls, the minimum size of a cluster will have to be 10,000sqm, an UDD official said.

“Developers will get an incentive FSI, either equal to what is required to house the existing occupants or a total FSI of 4, whichever is higher, if the road abutting the project is wider than 30 metres. Unlike the policy for the island city, Thane developers will have the option of using the incentive FSI to either build a sale component or avail of it as Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) — rights issued to a land owner as compensation for the space given to the government.

Developers will also have to develop public amenities on 25% of the plot, leave 15% for open spaces and implement DP reservations. Officials said the conditions for Navi Mumbai will be the same as for Thane.