BMC begins to raze Shanidev building

After the recent episode where comedian Kapil Sharma was booked under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act (MRTP) for adding illegal extensions to his apartment in Oshiwara, it is now the turn of A ward’s Shanidev building turn to grab the limelight for this issue.

The BMC A ward office has begun to destroy an entire five-storey building on Rajwadkar street in Colaba which has been illegally propped up. The original building was a ground-plus-one storey structure, which was a Mhada (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) cess building. Under the guise of redevelopment, the owners of the building went on to construct five floors, without permission from the BMC.

In 2014, the BMC issued a stop work notice to the building, after noticing illegal additions to its original structure. The owner, Mohammad Batliwala, moved court and issued a status quo notice. Following this, the BMC issued a notice to the owner under the MRTP Act for illegal extensions to the building in October 2015. Following this, the owner moved court again and obtained a stay order.

The BMC confirmed the A ward office will undertake the demolition of the entire building Monday onwards, as the stay order was vacated on Monday. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of the A ward said, “The owner submitted fake papers to Mhada and obtained its permissions, but there is no NOC, OC and CC from the building proposals department.”