Mumbai: windfall for builders such as redevelopment blooms by higher FSI schedules

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Mumbai: in the lanes and back streets of Bandra-Khar-Santacruz, if you see a six-storey housing association demolished and replaced by an 18-storey tower, it is not a magic. It is also not illegal.

Some clauses in the regulations for development control of the city can produce large windfalls for builders who redevelop housing associations. If the builder constructs rental properties for projects affected by project within a radius of 5 km of their redevelopment projects and hand over it for free to the BMC or the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), they receive a much higher floor space index (FSI) in exchange, Lakh a SQ FT.

Architect Manoj Daisaria said that because of the high FSI that is offered under these schemes, residents of housing associations are 30-50% more room in the redeveloped real estate. On the sea-oriented Carter Road of Bandra, developer Anand Pandit recently signed an agreement with Shree Amrit Society, where actor Shah Rukh Khan has a flat and members offer an unprecedented 155% more space in the new tower. The six -storey building goes up to 18 floors. Pandit said toi: “We did not decide which schedule to use. It can also depend on the financial benefits.”

It was the SRA who was out of the blocks for the first time to stimulate the redevelopment with regulations 33 (11) of the development control and promotion regulations (DCPR) 2034. What makes this very lucrative is that it offers a FSI of 4 compared to the normal 2.5, which means that the developer can build 4,000 m² on a redevelopment of a reception of 1000 SQ MOT VIS-VIS-VIS-VIS-VIS. More than a hundred developers have used this schedule.

Not left behind, the BMC recently introduced something similar__section 33 (20 b) of DCPR 2034 after the status has adjusted it. “Give us permanent transit camps (PTC) and take more FSI,” was the message. Domic Rommel, former President of Credai-Mchi, an organ that represents developers, said that most now prefer the BMC schedule. According to him, the FSI can allow a maximum of 5.4 (including fungible FSI). “This increases financial viability, making redevelopment more economical compared to SRAs 33 (11),” he said.

“A 5-storey building can go up to 25-27 floors if the road has more width (under 33 (20b)),” said Bandra-based developer Sharan Babani. In Bandra-Khar, most redeveloped buildings are now about 70 meters long (18-20 floors), while old living clubs in this belt are hardly two to seven floors high, he said.

But Babani added that what also changes – and is often overlooked – the density in these buildings. “Under regular schedules, there may have been only two apartments per floor, but with the higher FSI available under diagrams such as BMCs 33 (20B), which can now increase to four or even five units per floor. This means double or more the number of families on the same footprint, which means the population density, infrastructure tax,” he is.

Developer Sanjay Devnani said that such regulations under 33 (11) and 33 (20 B) are a “win-win for all stakeholders; residents, builders and the approval authorities.” “Now a building consumes 10,000 m², 50,000 to 60,000 m² allowed during the redevelopment,” he said. Housing expert Chandrashekhar Pabhu said, however, that the planning authorities (BMC and SRA) seem more than willing to grant much more FSI than what is provided according to the development rules of the city. “Although several apparent reasons have been demanded to justify the windfall, the real reason seems to be the war to control the approval processes, and through them … to take bribes,” he said. “The government has realized that it failed when it came to building houses for slum residents and that displaced for public projects. Instead of finding ways to use public countries effectively, the GOVT has now decided to shift the responsibility of offering accommodation for people and transit to the builders,” added Prabhu.

Ownership experts said that the challenge is to ensure that PTC rental homes, which are rarely completed on time, are transferred to the authorities, and that the clubbed get free sales buildings that are therefore trapped without occupancy certificates. “Many builders now only develop the PTCs and do not trust on unscrupulous SRA developers. In this way they can complete the PTCs and hand them over, so that they then get the professional certificate of the free sales buildings in excellent areas,” they said.

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