Case Booked Against Builders and SRA for FSI Violation
After several complaints, cases were recently booked against builders who have violated FSI norms and constructed illegal structures under SRA related projects. A case was booked against a company belonging to the HDIL group for violating FSI norms while constructing a building’s commercial sale portion under the slum rehabilitation project at Santa Cruz (West).
The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) booked a case against Heritage Housing Development Enterprises Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of HDIL on charges of floor space index (FSI) violation and several other charges. The case was booked pertaining to Dheeraj Heritage Society near Milan Subway on S V Road. The project is a ground-plus-five storey commercial building under the Daulatnagar Slum Rehabilitation Scheme. An FIR was also booked against the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA).
Flouting SRA’s additional FSI provision
The Dheeraj Heritage Society project covers about 1.04 lakh sq-m. One portion of the project was meant for rehabilitation of Daulatnagar slum-dwellers and another was set aside as a sale component. The project includes 32 rehab buildings, two commercial buildings and 12 residential buildings meant for sale. The commercial buildings have 385 establishments.
The complaint against the developer stated that the SRA-approved plan showed toilets meant for women on the eastern side, from basement up to the sixth floor. However in reality, there were no toilets. Instead, they were demolished to build shops and were sold for crores of rupees. The air-handling unit, the duct area and the open spaces too had been converted into shops. The complaint also stated that an illegal shed had been built on the area that was used by the developer as its office. Another unauthorized unit on the terrace was given out for parties.
Following complaints, the BMC had wrote to the SRA about building violations and had issued 54 notices regarding the violations. The complaint stated that the SRA had given two occupation certificates (OC) for the first floor misleading people to believe that the shops were authorized.
The SRA stated that the unauthorized changes were made after it granted the OC to the developer and hence, it could not be held responsible for the building violations. It also stated that it never issued the second OC though it was prepared.
Another example of illegal construction
While an FIR was booked against SRA and a subsidiary of HDIL, the Dheeraj Heritage Society project is not the only project which has seen FSI violations under the slum rehabilitation scheme norms. A plush apartment was built on a very narrow plot in Khar (West) misusing the additional FSI clause available under the SRA provision. K Mordani Pvt Ltd built 20 floors against the initially approved 12 floors using the additional FSI provision under SRA norms. While the building was meant to be majorly built as a transit tenement, luxury duplex and triplex apartments were built between the fourth and twentieth floors, each costing about Rs. 60,000 per sq-ft on carpet area.
While the plot size is 6,000 sq-ft, the construction area is about 60,000 sq-ft, which is 10 times the plot area. Several developers are now planning to follow suit using this little-known provision to get around BMC’s permissions.
The building is now under scanner for several large-scale irregularities and violations as compared to the original building plan. SRA’s CEO told that the OC would be withheld if the faults weren’t rectified within six months.
