Churchgate high-rise resumed construction against court orders, say residents

Construction in Vasant Sagar allegedly began last week. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Defying the 2014 stay ordered by the Supreme Court, owners of the Vasant Sagar building on Marine Drive - who were in the news for wanting to reconstruct the building at a height of 58 metres - allegedly resumed construction work last week, according to members of the Federation of Churchgate Residents' Association (FCRA). The members on Wednesday approached the civic body, demanding action against the owners.

The chief petitioner, Ashok Rao, argued that even though SC has ordered a stay on all construction work, the owners have violated the apex court's directions. "The construction activity has been pointed out to the ward officer. There has been a stay on [construction work] by the Bombay High Court since May 2012, which was continued by Supreme Court. Whatever construction is going on doesn't comply with the stay order," said Rao. He added that they would be writing to BMC, asking them to issue a stop-work notice to the owners. They're also contemplating further action in SC.

The Vasant Sagar building stands at a height of 42 metres. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Bane of Mumbai
Another Marine Drive resident said construction work began last week. He added that members of the FCRA will file two Right to Information applications: one each in the A ward office and the Building Proposal department to determine whether permissions were given to the owners.

Disappointed with the development, Atul Kumar, one of the petitioners and a resident of Marine Drive said, "Rules for selective redevelopment using discretionary powers have been the bane of Mumbai. Marine Drive is the last bastion, which is now under imminent threat."

Meanwhile, civic officials said the commencement certificate was issued to the owners back in July 2012 by the Building Proposal department to construct 12 floors above the ground level. However, after five floors were constructed, the height of the building stood at 42 metres, thus exceeding the height restriction of 24 metres in the area, as mentioned in the previous guidelines framed by the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC).

What permission?
A senior civic official said that since SC had ordered the stay on construction work, neither did the owners of Vasant Sagar approach the BMC for any approvals, nor did the ward office grant them the same. "We will write to the Building Proposal department for their remarks on the current status of the case and ask them if they have granted them [the building owners] permission for the construction work," said the official.

A towering issue
The issue had first come up in 2012, when the former municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar had given permission to the building owners to erect the structure up to 58 metres in height, well beyond the 24 metres norm previously prescribed for the rest of the precinct by MHCC. The matter had entered into a litigation, during which HC cancelled permissions granted by the civic body. The building owners had then approached SC, but didn't get any relief as the apex court continued the stay order.

In January 2016, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta recommended in a new set of guidelines that the height of the front row buildings of Marine Drive, which fall under the backbay zone, be raised from the existing limit of 24 metres to 32 metres, while the row of buildings behind that be raised from 24 metres to 58 metres.

Of the other two zones in Marine Drive, the draft guidelines proposes that the height of the Gymkhana zone be increased from 11-14 metres to 24 metres and that of the Chowpatty zone be increased from 21 metres to 32 metres.

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