Bombay civic body wants to open NDZ of Oshiwara-Borivli belt

MUMBAI: The BMC has suggested opening up of a majority of no-development zone (NDZ) areas located between Oshiwara and Borivli and owned by businessmen or builders. Activists alleged that the BMC is trying to favour land owners by opening NDZ areas for development and construction activity and warned that this move will further burden the city’s infrastructure.

Civic officials admitted that the move will add to the population of the already congested western suburbs but promised to improve the infrastructure accordingly. “There is no alternative. We need to choose between affordable housing and congestion,” said a senior civic official.

The BMC has proposed to create one million affordable houses in the city for different classes of people, for which it requires 3,000 hectares of land.

Officials said they tried to address the issue of affordable housing by opening up sea-facing NDZ areas of the western suburbs for development. Civic officials said the land owners already have 0.2 FSI on this NDZ land and the BMC cannot stop them from using the land.

The BMC has, therefore, decided to convince builders to hand over a part of their land for affordable housing after offering them attractive incentives. In the revised draft development plan (DP-34), the BMC has decided to allow developers an FSI of up to 3 on their plot. They have divided such NDZ plots into three parts, allowing construction on over 67% of the plot area. The land owner will get 34% of the land to construct saleable buildings and he must construct affordable houses on 33% of the land. On this 33%, he must construct public amenities, such as old age homes, along with the open space. The BMC will design a formula for distribution of affordable houses.

Those land owner who decide to not follow the BMC suggestions will get the existing FSI of 0.2, said a civic official.