Chavan puts 100 big land deals in Mumbai on hold

In what appears to be a clean-up drive, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has decided to review nearly 100 recent decisions related to land in Mumbai taken by the state government before he took over as chief minister from Ashok Chavan.

In what appears to be a clean-up drive, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has decided to review nearly 100 recent decisions related to land in Mumbai taken by the state government before he took over as chief minister from Ashok Chavan.

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These involve land allotments, hikes in the floor space index (FSI), changes in land reservation, and major redevelopment projects cleared by two key Maharashtra government departments — Urban Development and Revenue.

Sources said Chavan would do a case-by-case review of the decisions. "The review will be limited to recent decisions. If these involve any illegality or abuse of power, the decisions will have to been revoked. This will send a clear signal to the bureaucracy not to tolerate any illegalities in clearing land proposals," said a source close to the chief minister.

The move could, however, delay some big-ticket real estate projects in the city.

The aim is clear: to streamline the manner in which files pertaining to land-related cases are cleared at the state secretariat. The Urban Development Department formulates development control rules that regulate construction in the city -- it calls the shots on FSI hikes and change of land reservation.

The revenue department deals with all land allotment matters.

The source said Chavan was keen on bringing in more transparency in the working of these two departments as there had been questions about several big land deals cleared by the state in the last couple of years.

"The review of these files is likely to lead to the freezing of certain controversial development control regulations related to public parking and a tightening of the process for changing land reservation," said a senior bureaucrat.