After 20 years, a private builder’s 8-acre land in Juhu was formally taken over by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), which also removed any unlawful structures from the property. After the Bombay High Court recently overturned a stay on the removal of unapproved structures, encroachments were demolished.
The plot, located in a prime area opposite Ritambhara College, is valued at approximately Rs 2,000 crore. MHADA had taken “paper possession” of the land in 2022, but a stay order had prevented the physical handover until now.
The builder, Kiran Hemani of the Bombay Slum Redevelopment Corporation, had owned the site for 20 years. Concerned about the builder’s conduct, local BJP MLA Ameet Satam accused him of concretising the land and turning it into a commercial event space while redeveloping neighbouring slums. A Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project’s no-objection certificate was revoked by MHADA in 2022 when it was found that the redevelopment plan had incorrectly included an undeveloped open space.
Satam, along with MHADA, the Juhu Vile Parle Development Federation, and architect P K Das, successfully demonstrated that the plot had never been home to a slum, using satellite images and exposing fraudulent entries in SRA documents. This evidence led to MHADA taking paper possession of the land, but the builder had secured a stay preventing physical possession until now.
Satam praised the takeover as a major victory, calling it a significant win for residents and architects. He also stressed that the land was almost lost to a large-scale land scam, pointing out that the builder had rented out the space for commercial events despite the possession notice. Now that the legal obstacles have been removed, MHADA has taken full control of the plot and put up a board to prevent it from being taken again.
The builder, Kiran Hemani, had previously dismissed MHADA’s claims but did not respond to media inquiries on Sunday.
Source: The Times Of India
