Thaindian News

Mumbai, Jan 3 (IANS) An hour before elections to Maharashtra’s municipal corporations and zila parishads were declared Tuesday afternoon, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan announced an amendment to the rules governing construction activities in urban areas. The opposition parties slammed the timing of the decision.

Elections to 10 municipal corporations in the state would be held Feb 16 and polls for 27 zila parishads will be held Feb 7.

The opposition parties cried foul over the announcement on development control rules (DCR) coming on the day of the poll declaration, alleging it was made with an eye on the urban electorate. On Monday, the government announced doles for slum-dwellers and economically backward sections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena alleged that the chief minister’s announcement violated election guidelines as they were aimed at unduly “influencing” voters.

Admitting that many existing DCR regulations provided opportunities for arbitrariness and corruption, Chavan said that the amended rules were intended to reduce public harassment.

“The amendments to the DCR of Mumbai are a step in this direction. I am confident that this will be in the interest of the citizens of Mumbai and more specifically, the buyers of property in Mumbai,” Chavan said.

These would establish a level playing field for the developers, reduce arbitrary decision making by officials and lead to a reduction in property prices, he said.

Under the new DCR, areas of balcony, flower beds and terraces would be included in floor space index (FSI), but this will be compensated by fungible (interchangeable) FSI to the tune of 35 percent for residential and 20 percent for industrial and commercial constructions, Chavan said.

In another important amendment, parking areas would be available as per the DCR with an option of extra 25 percent free and without being counted in the FSI by the developer.

Other points include relaxation of open space requirements for developing small plots or redevelopment of cessed building to only 1.5 metres on all sides of plot measuring 600 square metres or less.

The stipulation of providing two staircases for buildings above 24 metres tall was relaxed for buildings up to 70 metres tall - or having approximately 25 floors.

Restrictions on number of basements for parking were removed, enabling developers to provide adequate parking areas and decongest roads of parked vehicles, as also the bars on constructing lofts and reducing floor height from existing 4.2 metres to 3.9 metres.

For all tall buildings (above 70 metres), the new DCR stipulated provision for emergency evacuation device.