A fresh controversy has emerged over the DB Ozone housing project in Mira Road, with an RTI activist alleging that details of seven unauthorised floors were not disclosed by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) in a report submitted before the Supreme Court.
The alleged omission has raised concerns over the legality of granting an occupation certificate (OC) to the project, while also bringing renewed focus on the developer’s pending obligations under the Rental Housing Scheme (RHS). Under the scheme, the developer was required to hand over around 3,000 tenements free of cost to MMRDA in exchange for additional floor space index (FSI).
The Supreme Court, while hearing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the developer seeking an OC for DB Ozone, had directed MMRDA and MBMC to conduct a joint inspection of the project. Documents accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act allegedly reveal discrepancies between the inspection findings and the permissions issued by the civic authority.
According to the joint inspection report dated June 11, the free-sale component of the project comprises 493 floors across 25 buildings. However, the revised commencement certificate (CC) issued by MBMC on December 31, 2010, permits only 486 floors in the same buildings.
The difference indicates that seven floors may have been constructed beyond approved limits by Neelkamal Realtors (Suburban) Pvt Ltd.
“Though the joint inspection team counted the floors correctly, neither MBMC nor MMRDA mentioned the discrepancy in the number of floors in the report submitted to the Supreme Court. They also did not submit a copy of the revised commencement certificate to the court,” alleged social activist Rajesh Singh, who obtained the documents through RTI.
Singh said this discrepancy prompted him to seek intervention in the SLP proceedings. “Both MMRDA and MBMC have not been forthcoming in their responses to the court. This is where the presence of an intervenor would have helped in bringing out the truth,” he said. However, the Supreme Court rejected his plea to be included as an intervenor.
Singh clarified that his concern was not to affect residents but to ensure that the 3,000 RHS tenements are handed over to MMRDA. “My concern is limited to the handing over of 3,000 tenements to MMRDA, which will benefit the city as it presently lacks shelter to accommodate people in the event of a calamity,” he said.
An MMRDA spokesperson said, “MMRDA is the implementing agency for the Rental Housing Scheme project, whereas MBMC is concerned with all other aspects related to development, such as building permissions.”
Developer Vinod Goenka said he was currently overseas and would respond after obtaining complete details. Messages sent to MBMC Assistant Director (Town Planning) Purushottam Shinde and repeated attempts to contact Neelkamal Realtors (Suburban) Pvt Ltd did not receive a response till the time of publication.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
