A day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced in the state assembly that the Development Plan for the city will be released in a matter of a fortnight, MRCC President Sanjay Nirupam while welcoming the decision is extremely worried about the real motives of the Fadnavis Govt.

On Wednesday, Fadnavis informed in the assembly that height restrictions had impacted the viability of redevelopments in the Airport Funnel Zone. In what will be a clear windfall gain for builders, Fadnavis said provision of conferring additional building rights in the form of transferrable development rights (TDR) or additional Floor Space Index, and relaxation in town planning norms were being considered.

In a scathing indictment of the BJP Govt, Nirupam alleged that the rules of the Development Control Regulation or DCR, which is the basis of the city’s Development Plan are being altered so that the benefits are not for the citizens of the city but for the builder lobby that is close to the Chief Minister.

Sanjay Nirupam said, “The whole idea of the Development Plan is to make our city less congested and more livable. If Fadnavis is going to give huge FSI or simply put construction bonus to builders and wrongfully call it helping Mumbaikars then I will call him out. This is a huge FSI Scam brewing in Maharashtra and the person who is stirring the pot is none other than the Chief Minister.”

Nirupam alleges that a particular builder who is also part of the ruling party has plans of constructing a huge Rs 4,500 crore project that falls under the Airport Funnel Zone. As a result, the builder is facing a huge height restriction and that is why he is pressurizing the Govt to give him the huge FSI bonus elsewhere in the city. The changes in the DCR rules are being made just to help this in-debt builder and others part of this dirty nexus.

The Congress leader adds, “Why is the proposed DCR not being shown to senior architects & civil society of Mumbai? Why isn’t their approval being sought before it is released? The reason the Govt is not doing so because it knows it will be exposed.”

Sanjay Nirupam’s suspicion comes from the Govt’s urgency of trying to allot FSI to those that can’t make high rises around the airport. Nirupam says that the Govt is fooling the people by saying that this is for the redevelopment of their homes.

He says, “The residents of the Airport funnel zone don’t need FSI elsewhere in the city. What the High Court order clearly says is that redevelopment has been embargoed because the BMC has been unable to come back with an alternative plan for the solid waste management of the buildings in the city. The Chief Minister instead of working to ensure there is an alternative created is busy trying to fulfill the dreams of the builder lobby. So even if the FSI is given elsewhere in the city what happens to the citizens who need a solid waste management alternative. Nothing is being done for them.”