Mumbai development plan: As deadline nears, BMC gets 6,000 objections in a week

With new errors coming to the fore with each passing day, the BMC till Wednesday received around 10,115 suggestions and objections to the Mumbai draft development plan (DP) 2034, of which 5,880 were sent last week.

With new errors coming to the fore with each passing day, the BMC till Wednesday received around 10,115 suggestions and objections to the Mumbai draft development plan (DP) 2034, of which 5,880 were sent last week.

The DP department had received 4,325 suggestions and objections to the plan till April 1. The plan was presented by civic chief Sitaram Kunte on February 16, and it was put up for public suggestions and objections on February 25. The 5,880 objections include 2,000 letters sent by parishioners, residents and political leaders over a road cutting through the St Annes Church and its school in Bandra that were handed over to the chief engineer of the department on Monday.

Experts and elected representatives said the number will rise further till April 24, the last day for the submission of feedback. Citizen groups want the deadline to be extended, but the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) does not have the power to grant an extension. Civic officials expect a decision on the demand on Friday.

Sandeep Deshpande, group leader, MNS, said, “Around 10,000 is not a very high number in comparison to the objections sent by Pune residents. The corporation will be flooded with letters once the DP becomes available in Marathi.”

Resident associations and NGOs organised various seminars to spread awareness about the issues related to the plan, so they could send their suggestions and objections to the civic body. “We need to scrutinise the responses. During the existing land use survey, too, we had received 3,000 to 4000 objections, but very few were relevant to the DP,” said an official from the DP department.

Despite repeated attempts, R Balachandran, chief engineer, DP, was unavailable for comment.