2,828 BMC buildings have no records

Mumbai: The city has a total of 2,828 properties that do not have any owner on record. This is due to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) failure to complete the documentation process.

“Although these properties are under the BMC, the civic body is not the owner formally as it has not been mentioned in land records of the state government. However, we are now completing the documentation process with the help of the collector’s office,” said a senior BMC officer.

The issue was brought to notice by the BMC’s improvement committee chairman Dilip Lande, a Shiv Sena corporator, in a recent meeting with the estate and development plan department. As per data provided by Mr Lande, there are 5,343 properties in the city, out of which 4,788 are under the estate department and 621 are under the development plan department.

Out of 4,788 properties under the estate department, documentation for 2,411 has been done, while 2,377 properties still await documentation. Out of the 621 properties under the development plan department, documentation for 170 has been done while that for 451 is pending.

Parag Masurkar, chief engineer of the estate department, said, “These are old buildings and many were built under the Bombay Improvement Trust. Later, the buildings came under the BMC. However, due to incomplete documentation, the BMC is not the owner of the properties on paper. Some of these buildings are used by the BMC for offices, clinics and other civic activities and some have been given on lease.”

“We are now completing the documentation process and with the help of the collector’s office, we will enter the data with the land record department. This will help prevent encroachment of these properties and aid the redevelopment of the old buildings.”

Mr Lande also said that the officers from the estate and development department would meet the suburban collector next week and submit the required documents.