Residents want 100% repair of Zaveri bldg., BMC insists on redevelopment

In a tug of war between the BMC and the hapless residents of a rickety building in South Mumbai’s crowded Zavery Bazar demanding 100 percent repair of their almost a century-old abode, the civic body has forwarded the request to its standing committee for recommendation.

The committee, led by Chairman Yashodhar Phanse, leader of the house Trushna Vishwasrao, chairman of education committee Vinod Shelar, along with BJP members Manoj Kotak and Dilip Patel, visited the building located in Third Agyari Lane.

While the BMC administration has apparently agreed for the 100 per cent repair, the committee fails to budge. The team is supposed to finalize their report on the building before the meeting next week, for further discussion on this issue.

With reference to this, Manoj  Kotak said, “we are not convinced that a go-ahead should be given to this proposal. We will discuss the issue in the meeting scheduled next week.”

The building was declared dilapidated in June 2012. Hence, the residents had sent a proposal for partial repairs, but when work commenced in March 2013, they realized that the building needed reconstruction.

“They were not keen to officially go in for redevelopment or reconstruction of the building, but they wanted to construct it all over again, just as it was earlier,” said an official from the BMC’s building proposal (BP) department.

He added if the residents opted for redevelopment or reconstruction, they could have lost FSI as they would have to keep an open space of 1.5 metres on all four sides of the building.

“Keeping in mind that they had only about 530 sq m to begin with, they decided to submit this unique proposal,” he further said.

Yashodhar Phanse, the chairman of the committee, said, “After studying the case, we will table the report before the committee for discussion, and then decide whether the project should be cleared or not. “