BMC continues encroachment, seals Zen Cafe

Mumbai: Continuing its stern action against encroachments and other irregularities, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday sealed the Zen Café restaurant at Raghuvanshi Mills, Lower Parel. The civic body also seized seven tonnes of inflammable silk rolls from the basement of Krishna Silk Industries.

Apart from this, the BMC took action against 40 other establishments in the mill premises - furniture and tiles showrooms, chandelier and crockery shops, a sanitary ware showroom and a marble shop - for illegal extensions and unauthorised signboards.

Civic officials said that the Zen Café restaurant was sealed as it did not have a fire no objection certificate and other necessary licenses. Krishna Silk Industries had illegally stored inflammable silk rolls in its basement, which is spread over an area of around 5,000 square metre.

Devendra Kumar Jain, assistant municipal commissioner, G-South ward, said, “We found a huge quantum of silk cloth rolls that cannot be stored in the basement as they are inflammable. The Zen Café restaurant was also found to be operating without a fire NOC and therefore, we sealed the premises.”

The storage of inflammable silk rolls is in violation of the Development Control Rules (DCR), according to which, the basement can be put to only specific kinds of use including storage of household and other non-hazardous goods; as store rooms; bank lockers or safe deposits; and parking spaces among other things.

The BMC action comes in the wake of the fire that broke out on December 29, 2017, at two eateries i.e. 1Above and Mojo’s Bistro inside Kamala Mills Compound, claiming 14 lives and injuring many others.